FRANCE: French Presidential candidate Segolene Royal keeps falling in the polls

The socialist candidate running for presidency Ségolène Royal keeps falling in polls while the UDF centrist candidate François Bayrou confirms a break-through. The socialist presidential candidate Segolène Royal keeps falling in polls, as shown by the results of three different poll institutes (IFOP, IPSOS, LH2). According to the IPSOS poll which will be released on Thursday (February 22), she has lost 4 points and shrinks to her lowest level (23%) since the socialist internal elections last November. Yesterday night, Royal answered citizens' questions in a TV show about the measures she announced. She was reproached a lack of accuracy about the financing of her programme and asked about her ability to face the challenges of a presidential campaign as a woman. "It is true that I think it is harder for a woman but I think as well that time has come for France to have a woman as a President of the Republic," she said. "Any man who had my background would not be questioned continuously about his skills and his legitimacy," she added. For some French people, Royal was not convincing. "Generally speaking, she agrees with everything she is told. She could promise anything as long as it brings her more electors, such as disabled, homosexuals or any minority that you can find in the population. She is on everyone's side and I think sometimes, she does not take any stand," explained Philippe. Others believe that Royal's right-wing challenger is manipulating her fall through the media. "I think her position is very much undermined by the right-wing party," said Thierry. Even some of her supporters seem to have lost faith in the candidacy of a woman running for presidency. "Unfortunately, she has a very well done programme, but France is not ready yet for a woman as a head of state," regrets Evelina. A political scientist from the poll institute IFOP, which made another survey and almost came to the same result as IPSOS, underlines the UDF centrist candidate François Bayrou's break-through as another major trend. "It showed quite a clear lead in favour of Nicolas Sarkozy that remained around 33% against 25.5% for Ségolène Royal. Overall, this poll confirms François Bayrou's break-through, 16%, this is the highest score for the time IFOP has tested him. And then, there is Jean-Marie Le Pen who has 11% of the voters' intents. It is clearly weak, it is very much less than the famous April 21st 2002 score and the reason is that there is a very important part of electors from the National Front who say "I voted for Jean-Marie Le Pen in 2002" and who directly transfer their votes to Nicolas Sarkozy for the first turn, " highlights the IFOP political scientist Frédéric Dabi. Nonetheless, political researchers such as Henri Rey want to warn the population against the limits of polls. In 2002, the extreme-right candidate Jean-Marie Le Pen had challenged President Jacques Chirac on the second turn, an outcome that no poll had forecast. After the dismissal of Eric Besson, one of Royal's campaign team, Royal decided to restructure the whole campaign organisation. She will announce the new orientations which will be given to the campaign on Thursday (February 22).

ITN Source | February 21, 2007

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