The BBC's Valerie Jones in Paris says she has risen on a wave of grassroots support, and appears to represent a desire amongst voters for a change in French politics.
Announcing her bid at a rally in southern France, Ms Royal pledged to "revive the country" and "give it every opportunity" against the governing conservatives.
"I accept taking on this mission for the benefit of France and the trials that go with it," she said.
His exit means the frontrunner, Ségolène Royal, who is already more than 30 points ahead of her rivals, is well placed to win the party's internal vote and face the centre-right's interior minister, Nicolas Sarkozy, in May. Both are proposing a clean break with France's tired political model, pledging to tackle crime and unemployment and heal the deflated national mood after more than a decade under President Jacques Chirac.
But Mr Jospin added to the acrimonious atmosphere among the Socialist old guard by saying he would not support Ms Royal, whom he has indirectly accused of being a "demagogue" out of step with the party's leftwing values.
Even as the family sniped at her from the sidelines, Royal received a boost last week with the withdrawal of Lionel Jospin, the former prime minister and her nearest rival, from the battle for the nomination.
He and the other male Socialist heavyweights who had wanted to run for president dismissed the attractive mother of four and companion of François Hollande, the party’s secretary-general, as a lightweight incapable of defeating Nicolas Sarkozy, 51, the most likely contender for the centre-right in the election next year.
Yet she was soaring high above these Socialist “elephants” in the opinion polls: the latest one last Wednesday suggested she would beat Sarkozy in a run-off by 52% to 48%.
Hollande was said to be depressed at the way Royal had trampled over his own presidential ambitions. Le Parisien newspaper quoted him as saying: “I am living a tragedy.”
Homosexualité et homoparentalité Ségolène Royal a émis de sérieuses réserves sur le mariage homosexuel : « Je me suis toujours refusée à instrumentaliser les questions de société pour faire "dans le coup". Je préfère le mot union à celui de mariage pour ne pas bousculer les repères traditionnels, la famille c'est un père et une mère[Le Parisien du 23 février 2006 ]. » Néanmoins, depuis juin 2006 et un entretien paru dans le magazine Têtu, elle a déclaré qu'elle appliquerait le programme du parti socialiste qui comprend le mariage des couples de même sexe et de leur droit à l'adoption en promettant leur mise en place en cas de victoire socialiste. Ainsi les médias en ont déduit son soutien au mariage homosexuel et à l'homoparentalité qu'elle n'a pas démenti depuis.(Wikipedia FR)
家庭・児童担当大臣だった当時ロワイヤル氏は、学校におけるホモフォビアと戦った。彼女は言う「寛容と歓待、それが学校に必要なのです。しかしながら、多くの若者が、彼/女の性的指向によって社会的な排除に直面しています。そのことによって薬物に溺れたり、自殺を企てる人もいます。今こそ、同性愛に対する差別を払拭する時です」 後に彼女は「The Happiness of Loving」と呼ばれるプログラムを高校や大学に導入した。これはビデオや冊子などからなるもので、学校の教師向けに作成された。同性愛だけにフォーカスしたものではないが、同性パートナーシップや同性愛者が被る偏見や差別についても触れられている。
In 2000, Mme Royal, as the then Minister of the Family and Children spoke out against homophobic bullying in schools, saying, “School must be a place a place of tolerance, of welcome. Too many young people face teasing, social exclusion because of their sexual orientation… Some consider drugs, suicide attempts. It is time to stand up to this hostility shown towards homosexuality.” She later introduced an educational pack in high schools and colleges called “The Happiness of Loving”, designed particularly for teachers and nurses. It comprises a video, educational information and printed copies for students which address the different issues of homosexuality and homophobia. It includes information on the Civil Partnership scheme, the situation of homosexuals and the discrimination which they face abroad. Mme Royal commented further on the issue later that year, “It is necessary, in my opinion, to step up against homophobia, to recognise and respect each other, with our differences”.
A law passed in February 2002, which was defended by Mme Royal as part of the Jospin government, gave legal recognition, for the first time, to families with gay parents, part of the law’s object. Article 7 of the law amended Article 337 of the Civil Code in allowing the parents to “[delegate] all or part of the exercise of their parental authority to a third person, member of the family [or] trustworthy near relation,”. Article 337-1, added by the law, ensures that “delegation may provide, for the needs of education of a child, that the father and mother, or one of them, shall share all or part of the exercise of parental authority with the third person delegatee."
In a June 2006 interview with LGBT publication Têtu, Royal said "opening up marriage to same-sex couples is needed in the name of equality, visibility and respect" and said that if her party formed the next government, she would introduce a bill to legalize same-sex marriage and adoption.
ところで来年の仏大統領選では、中道右派与党の国民運動連合はサルコジ内相を指名すると見られ(シラク大統領は三選を目指すかどうかの回答は避けている)、サルコジVSロワイヤルの大激戦・大接戦となる見通しだが、しかし極右のジャン・マリ=ルペン国民戦線党首(Jean-Marie Le Pen、78歳)の動向も気になるところだ。ルペン氏はすでに20日、大統領選への出馬を表明している。
France's far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen launched his 2007 presidential campaign yesterday at the site of a key battle in the French revolution in an attempt to recast himself as the defender of republican values.
The 78-year-old National Front leader, who shocked France in the 2002 presidential election by knocking out the Socialist prime minister Lionel Jospin and finishing second to Jacques Chirac, claims he can repeat that performance next May. Before his unexpected success in the last election, he had 7%-9% support in the polls; now he has 11%-14%.