Sergey Kadinsky
Written Works
The Rise of Segolene Royal
This essay, the third of the series includes the political theory writings of Joseph A. Buttigieg, Antonio Gramsci, and Robert Michels as a frames in describing Royal's strategies for success.
Towards the Finish Line:
Segolene Royal's Strategies for Success
More than a year before the primary election of 2007, it was becoming clear that the successor to French President Jacques Chirac will be unorthodox, in their personality, political views, and strategies for success. The professional background of the future leader has the traditional prerequisites of the office: an elite education, experience in the national government, and party leadership. At the same time, this leader will have views that go beyond the partisan framework. Following declining popularity and an embarrassing third-place defeat in the 2002 elections, the French Socialist Party was desperate for a fresh face to revive its membership, attract younger voters, and calm the restive immigrant population. Segolene Royal emerged as the mother figure of the party, its version of the mythical Marianne, restoring the Socialist party and the country to prominence and optimism. To achieve this goal, Royal recognized that the party must accept some changes.
In the final weeks before her defeat May 2007 runoff election, Royal vowed to act as a bridge between civil society and the government. As a leader, Royal promised to mediate between politicians, unions, and street protesters, and to update the social model. In her assessment of the anti-war movement in the United States, writer Arundhati Roy optimistically claimed that civil society was mobilized, finding its voice, as an alternative to the massive power of the government. (Buttigieg, 34) In her definition of civil society, Roy focused only on the marginalized and voiceless members of society, failing to include those who either supported the government, or held traditional values. Royal attempted to represent the marginalized elements of society.
Like Roy, Royal failed to take into account the power of traditional institutions in reinforcing hegemony. Gramcsi writes that places of social interaction, such as churches, cultural associations, and trade unions, as important places in which consensus is drawn. (Ibid, 37) In France, the consensus on Election Day showed the public preference for traditional leadership by electing Sarkozy. For her supporters, Royal is a symbol of change, but for older voters, experience appears to be the leading criterion.
Considering Antonio Gramsci’s types of intellectuals, Segolene Royal appears to be more of an organic intellectual. Some this is due to her public image, and her personal narrative. In her public image, Royal appears as a mother, compassionate, but firm. An example is her behavior at a recent televised forum, where an elderly member of the audience described his personal woes, alleging mistreatment by the state. To his surprise, Royal left the podium, crossed the studio, and toughed his arm in sympathy, stunning the crowd. The press was also stunned, unsure whether the act was out of sympathy or careful calculation. (Di Giovanni)
Among her supporters, it is recognized that Royal performs best when she is in grassroots mode, as a fiery orator. “When she is stuck behind a podium, she can appear wooden and boring. But when she takes a microphone and moves into the crowd, she comes into her own, one of her supporters said. (Ibid) This quality is her strength and weakness.
When unscripted speeches turn into gaffes, the public’s confidence is eroded. An example of this is her public stance promoting the national anthem, the Marsellaise, as a way of connecting to nationalist feelings among voters. At a recent campaign rally, her actions have proved otherwise, when she stood silent as the crowd sang the anthem. In response to the faux pas, her former economic advisor, Eric Besson described her as incompetent. “I don’t say it because she is a woman; I say it because she does not know her stuff.” (Ibid) As a result, centrist voters looked towards the more careful Bayrou and the more experienced Sarkozy for leadership. Thus, traditional hegemony is maintained.
For technical and administrative reasons, no less than tactical reasons, a strong organization needs equally strong leadership. (Michels) For Royal, this means crafting careful statements on various topics, and a campaign team that would advise her on how to maximize the party’s potential. Alongside her failure to avoid gaffes, Royal has also been unable to avoid being seen as ambiguous. As the general election of April 2007 approached, many leftist voters feared that Nicolas Sarkozy would win, and looked towards the centrist Francois Bayrou as an alternative to Royal.
Within Royal’s presidential campaign, her background is an example of social democracy, where a bourgeois intellectual provides theory and ideology for the working masses. (Gramsci) At the same time, Royal attempts to follow Lenin’s call to blur distinctions between workers and intellectuals through the self-described “participatory democracy.” This is shown in her “Desires for the Future” campaign, where ordinary citizens can submit their ideas on how to run the country to 470 local committees and a website. Royal promised to publish the best ideas, harnessing the “collective” intelligence” of the country.
A year after her 2004 election victory as the president of the Poitou-Charentes Region, Royal declared her intention to win the presidency. To connect with voters at this early stage, she focused more on domestic issues, such as school hazing and television violence, rather than economic theories and greater European concerns. (Baum) In response to alleged sexist remarks made by established Socialist Party leaders, Royal described her status as a woman to be an advantage in standing up for human rights. (Thornhill) In her attempt to create a broad movement of support, Royal embraced positions from across the political spectrum, including $35 billion of expanded state spending, and mandatory military service for delinquents, positions promoted by the political left and right, respectively. (Baum)
Segolene Royal’s rise to power has gone through cycles of cultivating support among established party leaders, and taking on popular stands that were outside the party’s platform. An example is her party nomination victory over former Prime Minister Laurent Fabius and former finance minister Dominique Strauss-Kahn, both considered to be the “elephants,” or established leaders of the party. Initially, both men were alleged to have said disparaging remarks about Royal. Nevertheless, she took the advice of former president Francois Mitterrand in securing her political base before trying to conquer the center. (Campbell) An example is former Prime Minister Lionel Jospin, who suffered a third place defeat in the 2002 elections. Initially, Jospin mocked Royal’s “listening to the French people as the best experts, better than the experts” as “pure demagoguery.” Royal’s late embrace of elephants such as Jospin was valuable in defeating Bayrou in he general election. At the time, there were claims of Bayrou attempting to enlist Strauss-Kahn as a future prime minister, should he win the elections.
Unlike the United States, in France, the bureaucracy is respected, and many French leaders are a product of the “grand ecole.” (Chrisafis) As a traditional intellectual, Royal is a product of a refined technical-cultural specialization that prepared her for a career of political leadership. It was in the “grande ecole” that Royal met her lover, François Hollande, and they have both dramatically risen within the party. Today, Hollande is the secretary of the Socialist Party. Royal’s political achievements include the positions of junior minister in the Environment, Education, and Families Affairs ministries. As a candidate, Royal appeared to make a stretch that went beyond experience.
In the polls, a common perception of Royal was her ambiguity, due largely to her inability to decide whether to veer left, as French socialists usually do when they're in trouble, or try to appeal to a broad spectrum of voters, from far left to centre-right. She has confused voters by bouncing between these two strategies throughout her campaign. (The Irish Times) Describing the advantages of ambiguity, Deborah Stone compares it to an artwork. “Symbols call forth individual imagination… and draw the observer into the work of art as an active participant. (Stone, 157) With participatory democracy as a centerpiece of her campaign, Royal welcomed public participation, taking cue from her supporters in her policy proposals. Her critics wrote that such a campaign lacked substance. She was viewed as hazy on the economy, unsure whether to stick to traditional socialist positions, or welcome certain reforms, such as loosening the 35-hour workweek law. Her platform was literally cobbled together by public opinion, including more than two million visitors to her online campaign. (Di Giovanni) Ambiguity initially benefited Royal, and she was praised for transcending partisan division through public input. However, on Election Day, anxious voters chose to return to a more traditional form of politics, voting for the more confident and concrete platform of Sarkozy.
In his description of socialist parties and trade unions in Western Europe, Robert Michels noted the importance of training and delegating roles. In the English labor movement, candidates for leadership oppositions are subject to examination in their knowledge of legal matters. (Michels) In Germany, the socialists have a “Party-School” in Berlin, where courses of instruction are given for the training of those wishing to take office in the party or in trade unions. Instead of bucking seniority, Michels writes that in these schools, preference is given to comrades who already hold office in the party or union. For Royal, public gaffes involving Quebec, China, and Hezbollah have all contributed to show a weakness on foreign policy. As a leader of a nuclear power with overseas territories and with a seat on the UN Security Council, the French president is expected to have expertise on foreign affairs. Royal’s primary defeat of the party “elephants” is considered positive for the Socialist Party, because it revived the party’s younger membership, and created optimism in a nation known for its pessimism. At the same time, it is not a substitute for professional experience and concrete positions. In a close runoff election, only seven points separated the winner, Nicolas Sarkozy and Royal.
Sources