France

Paris mayor announces bid for Socialist leadership

Article published on the 2008-08-27 Latest update 2008-08-27 11:50 TU

Bertrand Delanoë
( Photo: AFP )

As France's Socialists prepare for the 2012 presidential election, Paris mayor Bertrand Delanoë has announced that he will stand for the party's top job, the Secretary-General. The election for the post will be held at the party congress in the eastern town of Rheims in November, when the current holder, François Hollande, steps down.

Delanoë's announcement, which he made in an interview with Le Monde newspaper, has launched a flurry of interest in the news-media, who interpret it as a step towards the presidential nomination.

It is above all an attempt to wrongfoot his rivals to be the party's candidate, Florent Guignard of RFI's French-language service believes.

"In outlining a party majority of social-democratic orientation, he has pushed aside his principal rival for 2012, Ségolène Royal," she says.

The move will no doubt be hotly debated on the sidelines of the party's summer school which is taking place in Royal's power base of La Rochelle.

Current Secretary-General François Hollande, who is also Royal's ex-partner, wanted a Royal-Delanoë coalition to head the party.

Delanoë has effectively declared political war open, not only against Royal but also against other possible contenders, who include former Epmloyment Minister Martine Aubry and former Prime Minister Laurent Fabius.

Delanoë, who is one of France's few openly gay politicians, earlier this year declared that he was both a socialist and a liberal, which in France tends to mean an advocate of free-market economics.

He has prepared a declaration to November's party congress, entitled "Clarity, courage, conviction", which has won the support of Elisabeth Guigou, who has been both Justice and Emploment Minister  and former Prime Minister Lionel Jospin.