FRANCE’S NEW ROYALTY

PARIS, November 17. The Socialist party last night overwhelmingly endorsed Ségolène Royal as its candidate in next April's election.

Ms Royal, 53, the president of the Poitou-Charentes region and a former cabinet minister, won 60.6 per cent of the vote in France's first American-style primary campaign, handily beating two more experienced rivals, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, 57, a former finance minister, and Laurent Fabius, 60, a former prime minister.

France's presidential election takes place over two rounds on April 22 and May 6, 2007. Her main opponent in 2007 is likely to be conservative front-runner Nicolas Sarkozy, the Interior Minister and head of the ruling party, the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP).

An Ipsos opinion poll released on Thursday put Ms. Royal and Mr. Sarkozy in a dead heat if they were to face off in a second round of voting.