Sego hits back at critics with revelatory book

Segolene Royal, the Socialist candidate who lost out to Nicolas Sarkozy in the French presidential election earlier this year, plans to settle some scores with her political critics and her ex-husband today, with the launch of her book My Greatest Story is You. It is being seen as a riposte to half a dozen books by senior Socialists that depicted her presidential run as a disaster. As one of them put it, she offered France a "blend of Joan of Arc and Evita Peron". Royal says she "regrets nothing" and has indicated that she will try to take over the crippled opposition party and unseat Sarkozy in the 2012 elections.
 
She also reveals her bitterness towards Francois Hollande (pictured together), the Socialist party leader and father of her four children, for his failure to support her candidacy. She claims the "secret humiliation" she suffered over the discovery of Hollande's affair with a magazine journalist undermined her campaign. Hollande recently asked Segolene to come back to her - but she refused. "I told him that it was not a good idea. But that we could work together politically. I hope he is happy. He has so many qualities. And I loved him for so long."
 
Royal's book – titled Ma Plus Belle Histoire, C'Est Vous in French - has received lukewarm reviews in the French press, the Figaro calling it the story of "a woman injured by the inactivity, mistrust and hostility of her own side".
 
The revelation stirring the most interest is that she offered the post of prime minister to Francois Bayrou, the centrist candidate who was eliminated in the first round. Royal claims she made a midnight appointment to visit Bayrou at his Paris flat. On arrival she telephoned from the street downstrairs but he asked her not to come up, saying he was worried that people might see them together.

She realised that he had got cold feet and did not want to accept her offer. "The horse flinched before the obstacle . . . like a lover who fears that he can't perform or shies from a dangerous adultery," she writes. Bayrou has challenged her version of the episode but confirmed she made the offer. ·