Where's the Gray Suit?

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TOM HALEY / SIPA for TIME HOME TRUTHS: Hollande has long been thought to have presidential ambitions of his own, but Royal is ahead of him now

After ena, Royal joined Mitterrand's staff, and in 1988 he encouraged her to campaign for the National Assembly from a southwestern rural district. She held on to the seat in three elections, and in 2004 beat the conservative incumbent to become President of Poitou-Charentes — the only woman to lead one of France's 26 regions. She has also been a central government Minister — first with responsibility for the environment (pregnant with her fourth child, she led the French delegation to the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992) and then for schools, where she pushed to give parents a stronger role in an education system that ignored them, passed new laws to deal with bullying and pedophilia, and made the morning-after pill available in high schools. As France's first Minister of the Family from 2000 to 2002, she was responsible for laws introducing paternity leave and recognizing the right of divorced fathers to play a larger role in child rearing.

The environment and family matters have not been the traditional paths to the presidency; the French political élite takes finance and foreign affairs more seriously. But that doesn't seem to have hurt Royal. A poll last week showed that French voters had more confidence in her economic policy than any other candidate's — despite her having barely articulated one. Nor does it hurt that the camera loves her. This summer a paparazzo caught her on the beach in a blue bikini, and another spotted her in an inflatable boat with one of her daughters and Hollande, who was reading A History of France for Dummies.

Royal's candidacy has caused a wrenching conflict of interest for Hollande — a man, it has long been assumed, with presidential ambitions himself, and who, as party secretary, has to ensure that the selection of a candidate is not so divisive that it helps the conservatives. He has carefully reserved the right to throw his own hat into the ring if he thinks that's the best route to party unity. But it is hard to envisage what would have to happen between now and Oct. 3, when candidates must be registered, to force him to oppose his partner.

Still, Royal is nowhere near the Elysée yet. "The right is more or less in marching order," she told Time. "Now everyone should get behind me instead of trying to destroy me." Her supporters leave little doubt as to what their attitude would be if party dinosaurs connived to derail her. That, says Delphine Batho, a member of the party secretariat and a Ségolène supporter, would be "just one more time that a woman has been blocked because men don't want her to succeed." Royal herself, say her aides, is ready for the challenge."They're all waiting for her to crack up and start sobbing," says one. "There's nothing worse for these guys than a woman who's not fragile. And she's not, believe me." Not sad, not ugly, not boring — and as France's gray male politicos may soon find out — not weak, either.