PARIS -- Segolene Royal has surged to the front of the pack of Socialists who aim to succeed Jacques Chirac as president of France. Nobody would have bet a single euro on such a prospect a few months ago.
Until recently, Royal -- who now is merely the head of one France's 22 regional governments -- was best known as the nonmarried partner of Francois Hollande, the Socialist Party leader.
Yet, according to the polls, she is the only left-leaning candidate who looks able to defeat Nicolas Sarkozy, the current interior minister and odds-on favorite to be the center-right's standard bearer in the presidential election next May.