Le Ping! :)
Do you think that some Front National leaders will begin defecting to Villiers under the thinking that Le Pen is getting long in the tooth?
Also do you think chauvanistic La France is ready for Madame Royale to be President, or do you think she is a flash in the political pan???
"Do you think that some Front National leaders will begin defecting to Villiers under the thinking that Le Pen is getting long in the tooth?"
I don't think Le Pen brooks any rivals, and that there are no FN leaders other than Le Pen.
"Also do you think chauvinistic La France is ready for Madame Royal to be President, or do you think she is a flash in the political pan???"
Difficult to say.
I think she is a greater threat to Sarkozy than to Villepin, but the right have been so incompetent in general that it is difficult to see the people not throwing them out if the left has a candidate.
She could win, if she moves to the head of her party.
However, French politics is not so partisan as it is personal. For her to get to the head of her party, her rivals would have to stand aside for the good of the party. The last Frenchman who ever did anything truly altruistic for the good of the Republic was Charles de Gaulle. There being no American primary system in France. I would say that Mme. Royal will need to be more than popular with the people: she will need to have a base of authority within her party. Her husband helps with this.
Royal/Villepin may be the challenge in 2007.
Right now, Royal would win that.