Word: royals
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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French Socialist Ségolène Royal scored high enough marks as a presidential candidate in 2007 to finish second in the race, with 17 million votes. These days, her grades - and her ability to get on with her political colleagues - have slipped. In a new book set for publication Feb. 5, Royal not only belittles her victorious rival, President Nicolas Sarkozy, as a greedy, vain, amoral "little boy happy to be surrounded by his toys," she also takes swipes with similar venom at fellow Socialist Party heavyweights. Oddly enough, Royal appears to hope that the book's belligerent...
...collection of interviews, titled Femme Debout (Standing Woman), is expected to fly off bookshelves when it hits stores Thursday. As the title suggests, the book seeks to dispel any suspicion that a series of setbacks Royal has suffered since her May 2007 loss to Sarkozy has weakened in any way her bid for another run in 2012. In addition to the jabs at those she feels are conspiring to block her path, Royal also punctuates the book's pages with the boundless self-confidence that has proven both an asset and a liability to her over time. (See pictures...
...there's a better [candidate] than me, I'll even campaign for him in 2012," Royal says in one of the many challenges laid down in the 40 hours of interviews the book boils down. "But for the moment - sorry...
...What Royal does see is a Socialist Party whose leading lights - the so-called elephants - are either macho males who secretly view politics as a men-only club or complicit women who do their men's bidding. "Their thinking is basic: I'm male, I'm on the right career path, been to the right schools, have all the abilities, and I'm just the man for the job," Royal says of the party's male leadership that includes Dominique Strauss-Kahn, Paris mayor Bertrand Delanoë and former Prime Minister Laurent Fabius. "It's a very patrimonial and possessive...
...Royal is also harsh with Martine Aubry, the former Labor Minister under whom Royal served as Secretary of State in the late 1990s. Aubry narrowly beat Royal for the party leadership last November. "Despite the primary, the presidential election and a more than honorable score, I'm still her junior minister, and [Aubry] will never see me otherwise," Royal contends, adding that her rival also served as a proxy for male Socialist elephants to deny Royal the party leadership. "They found a woman to battle another woman on the logic we'd beat each other bloody, and they could step...