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France's Sarah Palin
Facelly / Sipa
Ségolène Royal is polarizing her country’s Socialist Party—and leading its revival. Eric Pape on what the French Rogue can teach Republicans about 2012.
Stop me if you’ve heard this before: A beautiful, attention-grabbing high-profile politician is stirring up big trouble in her party. She’s got passionate supporters whose backing is partly predicated on the premise that she can overcome the party’s desperate straits. How? Through maverick political stands, an ability to relate to normal folk, a “hotness”-based charisma, and a stunning ability to grab and hold the limelight.
Peillon argued that her political style is undermining party efforts to lay the seeds of victory, replacing it with a sort of “tabloid-ization.” She is, he added bitterly, “in need of major psychiatric care.”
Here are a few more hints: She’s a lightning rod for controversy, ambitious, a proud mother many times over, and she can come across as narcissistic in front of the wrong microphone. Gaffe prone? You betcha—like when she lauded China’s justice system for its efficiency. But her highest profile action was surely helping to sink her party in a national election that was within reach. And if the stars align, she might just do it again.
The candidate in question is Ségolène Royal, who nearly became France’s first female president in 2007 but was defeated by Nicolas Sarkozy. While her political packaging may bear many similarities to Sarah Palin, their politics are almost diametrically opposite. (For one, Royal is a true rouge socialist.) But their impact on their down-and-out political parties may turn out to be nearly identical.
Consider this: The Republicans and France’s Socialists have both been reduced to weak, if vocal parties that seem incapable of agreeing on constructive policy. But as the Socialists struggle to shape a credible alternative, the greatest immediate distraction—even if it can easily be mistaken for an attraction—may be the rogue who just won’t go away.
Just look at what happened at the Socialist Party gathering in Dijon this month. The organizers specifically asked that likely future presidential candidates (like Royal) not attend, while they attempted to forge the elements of a broad political alliance that could bring everyone from France’s political center to its far left together to win regional elections and later to evict the current right-wing president. The gathering was one in a series of small steps back from the brink of near irrelevancy for the Socialists, who have lost three consecutive presidential elections. It also came after two and a half years of absurd divisions, barely coherent opposition to Sarkozy, and an internal party-leadership election that Royal barely lost amid fraud allegations on both sides.
But recent weeks have brought glimmers of sunlight, including polls showing the Socialists staging a comeback. President Sarkozy’s once-disciplined party began to rebel and he has proved unable (or unwilling) to fulfill key campaign pledges, spurring his approval ratings to sink to their nadir. In the short term, all the Socialists had to do was to focus their fire at the struggling president.
And that’s when Rogue Royal crashed the no-presidential-aspirants gathering in Dijon—with a television crew. Yes, she was trying to make a point. Her former campaign lieutenant Vincent Peillon, who organized the Dijon event, was furious, suggesting that her egocentrism—some people refer to it as “segolenism"—is squelching party development. “This is a sad spectacle. Stop, Ségolène!” Peillon said on Europe 1 radio on Wednesday. “I cannot let myself be intimidated by someone who doesn’t come to create, who doesn’t come to help, but who destroys in endless quarrels.” He suggested in another interview that Royal had no right, after bringing on 20 catastrophes, to continue to “play the victim.” He argued that her political style is undermining party efforts to lay the seeds of victory, replacing it with a sort of “tabloid-ization.” She is, he added bitterly, “in need of major psychiatric care.”
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Paul Schrodt is a writer living in New York City. He has contributed to New York magazine, Radar, and Esquire.com.
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Eric Pape has reported on Europe and the Mediterranean region for Newsweek Magazine since 2003. He is co-author of the graphic novel Shake Girl, which was inspired by one of his articles. He has written for the Los Angeles Times magazine, Spin, Reader's Digest, Vibe, Courrier International, Salon, and Los Angeles from five continents. He is based in Paris. Follow him at twitter.com/ericpape
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Eric Pape has reported on Europe and the Mediterranean region for Newsweek Magazine since 2003. He is co-author of the graphic novel Shake Girl, which was inspired by one of his articles. He has written for the Los Angeles Times magazine, Spin, Reader's Digest, Vibe, Courrier International, Salon, and Los Angeles from five continents. He is based in Paris. Follow him at twitter.com/ericpape
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Eric Pape has reported on Europe and the Mediterranean region for Newsweek Magazine since 2003. He is co-author of the graphic novel Shake Girl, which was inspired by one of his articles. He has written for the Los Angeles Times magazine, Spin, Reader's Digest, Vibe, Courrier International, Salon, and Los Angeles from five continents. He is based in Paris. Follow him at twitter.com/ericpape
disfasia
What a sexist bunch of rubbish. This writer has about as much sense regarding French (or US) politics as he does women. Let's see, hmm... a politician, a vagina, uh, right, "Sarah Palin". And I thought we were in the 21st century. Royal has about as much to with Palin -- even in the remote field of symbolism -- as this journalist has to do with informed journalism. Royal has the formation and grace of a diplomat while Palin has the formation and grace of a lumberjack.
Really to compare both candidates only shows that this journalist thinks with which he has between his legs because that is exactly how he sees the world.
zizanie
All joys of typing the word vagina aside, disfasia, this article seems to focus on their very similar destructive roles within their political parties for several similar reasons. Tabloidization sounds pretty familiar to anyone who has watched Palin's campaign and book tour, no? So does the way so many people who worked on their campaigns now look at what they do and say in utter disbelief...
ManchaTheo
please... as much as I find Sarkozy to be megalomaniac midget, i've yet to witness this diplomatic grace you speak of... a concrete example of how ungraceful she is was the televised debate on TF1, her overall performance was abysmal at best, the cherry on the cake being the part on nuclear power.
attilathehunny
well that lumberjack is selling lots of books (to those uneducated, illiterate consurvativs.....jkjkjk) can you believe it?
DakLak
Paulin is no Royal.
Royal is smart, educated, eloquent, coherent and savvy.
Compared to her Paulin some sort of Alaskan bag lady looking for clothing.
MurrayAbraham
Second.
Royal is much closer to HRC than to Palin. She learns from her mistakes. In particular she was to "cerebral" during the presidential campaign.
gak001
I don't know... she's actually attractive.
DakLak
Pailin? Only to a moose.
Owlygirl
Sorry. Even the animals hate her.
Can you blame them?
opedanderson
The amount of sexism being expressed by lefties here on TDB is very surprising to me.....
ritamary
Sexism among lefties should be no surprise if you were paying any attention to the Democratic presidential primaries last year. "99 Problems but a Bitch Ain't One" as a campaign theme song, Hillary Clinton and Geraldine Ferraro characterized as "fucking whores" at a fund-raising event, etc. You don't remember that?
ectoendomezo
Grim...
I think..its a new trend in Sociopolitical SoftCore.."Stepford Wives Gone Wild"...
Martyz42
I am not French, I really don't like the French or France itself because of the arrogance of the people in general. When the rioting broke out in France a few years back with the Arab Muslims burning the city, I was almost happy to see it happen. (As long as no one was hurt)
BUT even I would not wish Sarah Palin on the French. Sarah Palin who is surly the picture of White Trash in this Country does not have 1/10 the brain power of this French woman & PLEASE lets remember this female in France is all about "'CARING FOR THE PEOPLE", not for Jesus & big companies.......
debbieqd
You think the French people in general are arrogant? What do you think of Americans?
ManchaTheo
Can someone please explain the origin of the ridiculous and seemingly unfounded anti-french sentiment in the US?
And this whole sweeping generalizations against a country and all its people in general while you're at it...?
As for the joy experienced as a result of riots and cars being burnt...
Winski
I AM ASTOUNDED that ANYONE could compare Ségolène Royal to the current US hate-monger sister sarah beck - running mate - chop cooker. This is like comparing chocolate to dirt..AND sister sarah is NOT the chocolate.
This is a blatant insult to Ségolène Royal and demands an apology from you, Mr. Page sine your wannabe-journalism has stooped to the lowest level possible.
tolatetocry
quit dissing Sarah with your bs!
ManchaTheo
if anything this is quite insulting to Royal
Willow207
Palin News Is Top Story For Only Two Percent Of Public, According To New Study
Huffington Post/Sam Stein
The media is drastically overplaying former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's influence on the national political conversation, suggests a new study of the public's news-watching patterns.
The Pew Research Center released a public opinion survey on Wednesday showing that, of the recent news stories people followed most closely, the one-time vice presidential candidate and her book tour have garnered very little sustained interest.
Only two percent of respondents said that news of Palin and her new book, "Going Rogue," was the story they followed "most closely" this past week. Only ten percent said they were following it "very closely." Compare that to the 41 percent who said that the health care reform debate was their top story and 18 percent who said the same about the swine flu epidemic.
Pushing the point a bit further, Pew discovered that: "Most Americans (52%) say they have been hearing too much about Palin, while 26% say they have been hearing the right amount and 13% say they have been hearing too little about her. Far more say they are hearing too much about Palin now than in July, after her surprise resignation as Alaska's governor (38%)."
The findings reflect just how far apart the public and the press are when it comes to news coverage. Certainly there seems to be a greater appetite out there for substantive reporting on health care -- as well as less interest in wall-to-wall Palin coverage -- than conventional wisdom dictates.
That said, the numbers should be taken with some qualifiers. For starters, not all substantive news was of public interest. Only four percent of respondents said that President Obama's trip to Asia was their top story (though time differences may have had something to do with that).
Moreover, the findings are likely to be tilted by the fact that those surveyed may be more inclined to say they follow serious news rather than the tabloid-like material on Palin. Certainly, it has been widely documented that coverage of the conservative firebrand is doing wonders for the traffic of various news websites.
zizanie
the PEW is great, but it is worth taking these self-reported surveys with a grain of salt. it is sort of like all of the people who claim they spend all of their time listening to the whole grain of PBS or NPR, but actual listening numbers suggest that most of them listen to plenty of infotainment.
the PEW should include a "DO YOU CLICK ON GUILTY PLEASURES" category that would include the Palin stories that stir up her obsessive supporters and her obsessive enemies. because the DB wouldn't run all of the stories mentioning Guv Palin if tons of people weren't clicking on 'em.
that said, fortunately, the DB have also run plenty of health care stories and other more nutritious whole wheat news.
durogoff
Ce n'est pas de l'arrogance que de constater que la vaste majorité des 'ricains c'est des pauvres cons... incapables de lire ceci!
ManchaTheo
(that should read "ricains sont des pauvres cons")
kokuaguy
And how many of the French can read English?
ManchaTheo
I think most of the people who've commented thus far should go back and reread the article as it appears they've massively missed the point.
This article is mainly pointing out what some would argue to be similar courses of action undertaken by two politicians. There's no further comparison( be it regarding: policy, intelligence, education...) being made.
FatFreddy
So what else is new? That's what's so wonderful about this country. People see, hear and read what they want.
JimCap
This may just be the dumbest comparison I've ever seen.
Why not a column comparing Tony Blair to Mitt Romney? After all, they both have penises. Right?
nick1936
Yes but Romney is a cult member
fboteroz
All bullshit. Who cares
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