Segolene Royal gets a rousing reception from supporters at her manifesto launch near Paris. Photograph: Maya Vidon/EPA
Segolene Royal's opponents are in full voice today - but they can no longer accuse France's would-be president of lacking policies. She set out 100 of them in her manifesto launch at Villepinte yesterday. Her critics don't know where to begin.
"Young people are having serious problems with their health, I've heard," Royal told her audience, promising free check-ups for under-25s. "With a stethoscope?" mocks Jules at Diner's Room in a scathing live blogging session. "It wasn't enough to improve her poll ratings," he concludes.
Zorglub, commenting at Versac, is equally scornful.
"1,500 euro minimum [monthly] wage - how is that a reform, it's a bribe ... bootcamps for young offenders - she's already talked about them, we've already laughed ... rethinking the 35-hour week, the key reform of the Jospin government - to which she belonged ... GP consultations cost almost nothing (cheaper than calling out a plumber) and making them free only helps the healthiest section of society ... families who pay rent on time can become homeowners after 10 or 15 years - that's nice for people who pay back a mortgage for 25 years ... even more red tape and tax for businesses ... fleecing expats who already pay taxes in the country where they're living ... In short, promises - concrete ones, her supporters will say. OK. But that's not what we're asking for. Where are the vital reforms to social security and labour laws? Too much of the state kills the state."
The proposal to tax expats - the so-called "Johnny law", a reference to the singer Johnny Hallyday, a tax exile and Sarkozy supporter - goes down particularly badly at Let's Change the Candidate, a socialist blog that wants Royal replaced. "Is this even legal? How would we stop expats from changing nationality to avoid it?"
If the content was controversial, the delivery was better than some were expecting. " Segolene Royal has not become an outstanding orator overnight," says Segomadit.fr. "But she seemed more at ease than at some recent public appearances, where she gave the impression of reading her speeches for the first time."
"Mi-figue, mi-raisin, (neither good nor bad)" says Embruns, who compares the rally unfavourably with Nicolas Sarkozy's. "I don't see how this speech is going to reinvigorate the Socialist party. The concept of 'participative democracy' has, unsurprisingly, shown its limitations. Nothing really original or new seems to have come out of it."
But Royal's vision of a "fairer, stronger France" pressed many of the right buttons for the French left. Liberation says she has "found her voice" and put young people at the centre of her campaign - those living on deprived estates and the students who took to the streets to protest against Dominique de Villepin's proposed labour laws.
"What use is the [higher] minimum wage?" mocks one visitor to Versac. "Oh, it only gives workers a better standard of living, enables them to live somewhere decent - lets them stay afloat in a society where everything has gone up in the past five years, except wages ... She's opened up a real difference between the left and the right. I think she's scored some goals - and I'm more of a [Francois] Bayrou [the centrist candidate] supporter, myself."
