FRANÇOIS HOLLANDE’S camp- aign to win the French Socialist Party’s presidential nomination received a boost yesterday when his former partner Ségolène Royal said she was supporting him.
Both Mr Hollande and Martine Aubry, who face each other in a play-off for the nomination next Sunday, had lobbied for Ms Royal’s endorsement after she was eliminated from the party primary last weekend with just 7 per cent of the vote. Ms Royal, the socialists’ defeated candidate against Nicolas Sarkozy in 2007, had to choose which of the frontrunners she disliked least: her long-time rival Ms Aubry, whom she accused of having “stolen” the party leadership from her in a controversial vote in 2008; or the father of her four children, Mr Hollande, who left her for another woman in 2007.
“I am putting all my support behind François Hollande,” Ms Royal said yesterday. “We must give impetus to the candidate with a clear lead, and not leave the right any foothold.” Relations between Ms Royal and Mr Hollande have been strained in recent years. He was party leader in 2007 when she complained of a lack of support from the party apparatus for her campaign against Mr Sarkozy. The couple announced the end of their 29-year relationship after that election, and Mr Hollande has described his new partner – a journalist, Valérie Trierweiler – as “the woman of my life”.
Mr Hollande is said to have felt Ms Royal foiled his own presidential ambitions in 2007, and the body language between them was awkward during this autumn’s primary campaign.
Acknowledging the endorsement, Mr Hollande praised “the elegance and responsibility of the woman who was our candidate in 2007 and who understands how vital unity is to the strength of an electoral campaign”.
Ms Trierweiler tweeted that Ms Royal had acted graciously.
Mr Hollande badly needed his former partner’s support, but his victory over Ms Aubry has looked much less certain since Arnaud Montebourg finished in third place with 17 per cent of the vote in last Sunday’s first round. Mr Montebourg, the most left-wing of the six candidates, is ideologically closer to Ms Aubry.
In the first poll of second-round voting plans since then, an Opinionway survey of left-wing voters showed Mr Hollande’s predicted score had slipped four points to 54 per cent while Aubry’s rose four points to 46 per cent.
Mr Montebourg, whose support could be decisive in Sunday’s runoff, said he was waiting until after last night’s debate between Mr Hollande and Ms Aubry before choosing between them.