Royal proposes "presidential pact" as election programme

Feb 11, 2007, 15:35 GMT

Villepinte, France - In an eagerly awaited announcement of her election programme, French Socialist Party presidential hopeful Segolene Royal on Sunday presented what she called a 'presidential pact' that emphasized many socially liberal proposals.

In an echo of the only Socialist elected to the presidency since World War II, Francois Mitterand, Royal told some 15,000 party faithful in the town of Villepinte, just northeast of Paris, that she had '100 proposals for France to recover a shared ambition, pride and fraternity.'

In 1981, Mitterand had presented '110 propositions' in the first of his two successful presidential campaigns.

Royal's proposals emphasized the traditionally left-wing Socialist policies, such as increasing 'as soon as possible' the French monthly minimum wage to 1,500 euros (about 1,960 dollars), from the current 1,250 euros, increasing 'small pensions' by 5 per cent and the construction of 120,000 state-subsidized domiciles per year.

However, she also put forward several controversial propositions, such as placing hardened juvenile delinquents in a military environment and opening negotiations on the 35-hour working week, a cornerstone Socialist Party law, 'to reduce its negative effects for workers and employees.'

Royal had been repeatedly criticized, both by the UMP party of her main opponent, Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, and members of her own party for her decision to hold off the announcement of her programme.

On Sunday, she said she had waited because 'I wanted to take the time to listen to you,' and defended her campaign of 'participative democracy,' which involved 'more than 6,000 debates organized on the entire French territory.'

However, in leaving the media field open to Sarkozy, she slipped in the polls and now trails him by four to six percentage points.

The media-savvy Sarkozy was also prominent on Sunday, holding a campaign meeting with 4,000 supporters in Paris and promising 'a new republican pact.'

In his speech, he hinted that he would propose a euthanasia law for the hopelessly ill because 'there are limits to the suffering that we can impose on a human being.'

The first round of presidential elections will be held April 22, with the second round, between the two top vote-getters, to be held May 6.