FRENCH SOCIALIST Party leader Martine Aubry has declared herself a candidate to challenge French president Nicolas Sarkozy in next year’s presidential election, pledging to restore the country’s “strength, serenity and unity” if she becomes its first left-wing president in more than 15 years.
Ms Aubry (60), a former labour minister and the current mayor of Lille, had been expected to stand aside for Dominique Strauss-Kahn until his arrest in New York ruled him out of the party primary.
Opinion polls suggest she is now in a two-way contest for the nomination with François Hollande, a former party leader.
To calls of “Martine, présidente” from the crowd, Ms Aubry formally entered the race for the socialist nomination before supporters in Lille yesterday.
She portrayed the Sarkozy presidency as one marked by division, injustice and wasted opportunities. “Behind what looks like energy, but could be seen as restlessness, the reality is unfair policies that solely benefit the most privileged,” Ms Aubry said. “It is time that change. I want to give France back its strength, serenity and unity.”
Ms Aubry, a lover of literature and classical music, once said her highest ambition was to be culture minister, and even some of her supporters suspect she has always been ambivalent about becoming president. Seeking to put that impression to rest, Ms Aubry stressed her determination to fight for the job and spoke of her “desire to act” for the country.
Along with then finance minister Mr Strauss-Kahn, Ms Aubry was one of the architects of the 35- hour work week, a measure Mr Sarkozy argues has acted as a brake on economic growth.
Ms Aubry was one of the most prominent members of the last socialist government. She shares credit for a reduction in the chronically high unemployment rate and the introduction of universal healthcare for everyone, citizen or not, who did not have welfare insurance.
Ms Aubry’s politics are seen as more solidly left-wing than Mr Hollande’s, but her success in bringing relative calm to her fractious party has widened her support base and enhanced her standing as a unifying force.
Since Mr Strauss-Kahn’s arrest in New York last month, Ms Aubry has won more endorsements from his centrist allies than Mr Hollande, who nominally belongs to the same social democratic camp as the former head of the International Monetary Fund.
Ms Aubry has the support of former finance minister Laurent Fabius and Mr Strauss-Kahn’s de-facto spokesman in Paris, Jean-Christophe Cambadélis.
A graduate of the École Nationale d’Administration, a finishing school for senior civil servants, Ms Aubry is a private, low- key politician. Critics say she lacks charisma, while supporters feel her serious, down-to-earth persona will contrast favourably with Mr Sarkozy’s showy style.
Ms Aubry’s father is Jacques Delors, the former president of the European Commission, who disappointed many socialists when he decided at the last minute, despite strong opinion poll ratings, not to run for president in 1995.
Ségolène Royal, the socialists’ defeated candidate in 2007, has also declared she will run in the party primary, a process that culminates in a vote, open to registered left-wing voters, in October.