Her victory, hailed last night by one of her supporters in Paris as the “birth of a new Socialist party”, helps her to dismiss criticisms that her candidacy was based more on style than substance and she lacked the experience to win the hearts of her party.
“I am conscious of having received this boost; to have been chosen in this way is something extraordinary,” said Ms Royal, speaking from her home at Melle, the small village in her rural constituency of Poitou-Charente in western France.
“France is going to write a new page of its history. The country has a desire for change. I want to incarnate that change, to give it credibility and legitimacy, and I believe that this legitimacy has been offered to me tonight,” she said.
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