Thinking of Segolene Royal I am reminded of an old saying: The strongest perfumes come in small bottles. Mme Royal is petite, sophisticated, perfectly presented and marketed with all the media savvy of the most expensive of French perfumes. Indeed she is best thought of as someone who smells good.

French politics has a distinct stink at the moment, one which is causing widespread nausea and disaffection among the general public. On the right, there is the Clearstream affair which has exposed the dirty goings-on of the ruling UMP party. On the left, there is the bitter smell of division and squabbling. Then there is the ever-present stench of the Far Right to which you can now add the pungent Islamophobia of Philippe De Villiers, the leader of the conservative and nationalist MPF (Mouvement pour la France) party. Couple that with a number of high-profile corruption scandals over the last few years and it is easy to understand the appeal of anyone who appears fresh and clean.

Royal has done just that. Despite being part of the political elite, she has somehow managed to cast herself in the role of the untainted outsider. A graduate of the Ecole Nationale D’Administration just like Dominique de Villepin and every other prominent French politician bar Nicholas Sarkozy, a long-time protégée of former president Francois Mitterand, a former minister of the environment and a junior minister for the family, an MP since 1988 and the current president of the Poitou Charentes region of France, she is also the partner of Francois Hollande, the current leader of the Socialist party with whom she has four children but has not married. Royal is riding the opinion polls. Since last October when she first hinted at her ambition to become France’s first woman president, she has steadily built up her ratings. The latest opinion poll gives her a 56 percent popularity rating and also singles her out as the only politician whose popularity is not in decline.

I have mixed feelings about Royal. There is something glossy and opaque about her. Whenever I see her interviewed I am left a little bewildered, I can never tell quite what she thinks or believes. She is clearly shrewd and has a will of steel, but she puts out an air of serendipity, a way of almost pretending that she has no role in what is happening to her. Her line is often: “I did not ask for this to happen to me, but now that it is I am awed by it,” or “If the French people want me to be their president, then I am honored and will rise to this honor”. She is defined by her popularity, her legitimacy is based on her scores in opinion polls. She has no power base within her own party and was a lightweight until quite recently, but she has emerged into the limelight by becoming the darling of the media and by presenting herself in neutral terms: She does not preach, she listens. She phrases her views not as policies but as questions. Until recently she steered clear of major political issues, focusing instead on making general statements. She is a skilled wordsmith, during the debate on employment law, she steered herself away from using the word flexibility and introduced the concept of “agility” in the workplace.

Perhaps her most shrewd move is her decision to set up “Desirs d’Avenir” (desires for a future). Initially set up as a think tank back in December, it has now progressed into both a website and a book by the same name. The website gives Royal a powerful forum to engage the French public directly. In her introduction, she acknowledges that French politicians are often remote and out of touch, and asks French citizens to contribute to the democratic process directly by helping formulate policy. The book is Segolene’s vision of the future and is being gradually uploaded onto her website.

Unlike most of her colleagues in the French Socialist party, Royal has taken on-board the experience of Britain’s Tony Blair and understood the need to position herself in the center if she is to become a viable candidate to win the presidency. And, just like her potential rival Sarkozy, she has understood the importance of neutralizing the extreme right vote. Whilst Sarkozy has focused on anti-immigration rhetoric and on using his position as interior minister to demonstrate his will to tackle law and order with firmness, Royal has come out with a series of unorthodox policies to tackle juvenile delinquents which have alarmed and split much of the left but which have gained the support of a majority of the French population, including supporters of the National Front. These proposals include sending delinquents aged over 16 to military establishments where they would either undergo job training or work on a humanitarian project, as well as the establishment of parenting schools for the parents of children who offend.

What I find interesting about these policies is that they tap the popular pulse. They show Royal to be a politician who is willing to throw aside ideology in order to win votes and who is not scared to step away from party ground. In the second chapter of her book — uploaded onto her website just a couple of days ago — she has voiced her opposition to the 35-hour week, a key policy of her party. The more we find out about Royal, from her opposition to single-sex families to her campaign against adverts for scanty underwear, the less she seems a candidate from the left. If anything, the battle she will face is not from the opposition but from her own party.

The presidential elections are not until next spring and neither Royal nor Sarkozy are official candidates, yet. But both have declared their ambition and the country is gearing up for a “Sarko-Sego” race. As things currently stand, the opinion polls predict a win for Royal, but opinion polls are notorious for getting it wrong. Many believe that the ruthless Sarkozy would thrash Royal in a presidential run-off and perhaps he will, but a year is a long time in politics.