Royal was strong on the environment and schools but made a series of foreign policy gaffes — suggesting, for instance, that the Canadian province of Quebec deserved independence. During the campaign, Sarkozy’s camp portrayed Royal as a lightweight with unclear ideas, while hers painted him as brutal, a bully — once Royal even called Sarkozy the “bogeyman.”
Royal’s loss marked the Socialists’ third straight defeat in presidential elections. The party managed to glue itself back together after splitting in two over the 2005 referendum on the proposed European constitution, when many of its leaders broke from the party line to urge the French to vote it down.
