(Angus Reid Global Monitor) - Many people in France would like Paris mayor Bertrand Delanoë to become the next leader of the Socialist Party (PS), according to a poll by CSA published in Le Parisien. 27 per cent of respondents pick Delanoë as the best candidate to take the job.

Ségolène Royal, the losing candidate in the most recent presidential election, is second on the list with 18 per cent, followed by Lille mayor Martine Aubry with 14 per cent, PS national secretary Pierre Moscovici with five per cent, lawmaker Manuel Valls with four per cent, and lawmaker Julien Dray with three per cent.

Among PS supporters, Delanoë is also the first choice with 29 per cent, this time closely followed by Royal with 27 per cent, Aubry with 16 per cent, Moscovici with seven per cent, Dray with four per cent, and Valls with three per cent.

The first round of France’s presidential election took place in April 2007. Final results put Nicolas Sarkozy of the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) in first place with 31.18 per cent of all cast ballots, followed by Royal with 25.87 per cent. In the May run-off, Sarkozy defeated Royal with 53.06 per cent of the vote. Sarkozy appointed François Fillon—who had been his adviser and presidential campaign leader—as prime minister.

François Hollande, Royal’s former partner and the father of her four children, has been the PS leader since 1997. Hollande is expected to step down later this year.

On Aug. 27, Delanoë officially declared he will run for the PS leadership, saying, "I will be the first to sign up to a move towards a political project which I would like to lead. So of course I will accept the foremost task of a party member, if the Socialists will trust me with it."

Polling Data

Out of these people, who would you prefer to take over as leader of the Socialist Party (PS) after François Hollande?

Source: CSA / Le Parisien
Methodology: Telephone interviews with 1,008 French adults, conducted on Aug. 20, 2008. No margin of error was provided.

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