French Socialist leader announces presidential bid

The leader of France’s opposition Socialists, Martine Aubry, says she will seek the French presidency.

Ms. Aubry faces a party primary in the coming months. The Socialists are France’s leading opposition party and their candidate is likely to be the chief challenger to the conservative and unpopular President Nicolas Sarkozy in the elections next April and May.

The leading Socialist contender was knocked out of the French political picture last month. Ex-IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn is under house arrest in New York facing charges that he tried to rape a hotel maid. He denies the charges.

Ms. Aubry announced her candidacy on Tuesday. Possible opponents for the Socialist candidacy include her predecessor, Francois Hollande, and his long-time partner Segolene Royal, who lost to Mr. Sarkozy in the 2007 presidential runoff.

In announcing her candidacy on Tuesday, Ms. Aubry denounced what she called policies “led exclusively for the profit of the most privileged.”

She pledged “decent” pensions, a rehaul of public services, and better pay checks, though didn’t detail how these would be paid for.

Ms. Aubry called on “green” parties and other leftists to come together ahead of the elections.

“I want to bring back France’s strength, its serenity, its unity,” Ms. Aubry said.

“One does not govern by pitting French people against each other, the unemployed against the workers, the young against the old, the French against the foreigners,” she said. 

AP