Read Charles Bremner on Royal and Bayrou

Ségolène Royal, the Socialist candidate for the French presidency, gambled on rallying centrist voters yesterday – at the risk of losing support from her leftwing core in the race to beat Nicolas Sarkozy.

Ms Royal stirred concern as well as praise in her camp when she agreed to a televised debate on Saturday with François Bayrou, the centrist candidate, who was eliminated in third place in Sunday’s first-round vote.

Eager to woo Mr Bayrou’s seven million voters for the May 6 election, Ms Royal signalled that she was open to overtures from the former Education Minister. He has refused to endorse either finalist but indicated that he favoured the Socialist. “I am a practical woman. I adapt to circumstances,” Ms Royal, 53, said on television. “I am above parties, of course, since I must gather to my side one out of every two French people [to win].”

Her gesture towards the centrist leader was hailed by allies as a clever move that would broaden the appeal of France’s unreformed Socialist Party to middle-ground voters. Ms Royal must win centrist backing to catch up with Mr Sarkozy, who continues to enjoy a lead of about five points in opinion polls.

Laurent Joffrin, the Editor of Libération, the leftwing daily, welcomed the potential centre-Socialist alliance. “The upheaval that is taking shape corresponds to the profound desire of all those who want to modernise French political life – whether they voted Bayrou or Royal,” he wrote.

Julien Dray, Ms Royal’s spokesman, said: “Since Ségolène Royal’s gamble, something is happening in this country. She is creating conditions for a broad gathering of forces for the wellbeing of the country.”

Other colleagues likened Ms Royal’s move to the tactics of the late François Mitterrand, who stifled rivalry from the powerful Communist Party by embracing it in his 1981 election to the presidency.

Some senior Socialists, including François Hollande, the party leader and Ms Royal’s partner, were uneasy about a gambit that they see as potentially confusing to leftwing supporters and a danger to their party’s traditional ideals. “Getting close to [Mr Bayrou’s] Union for French Democracy is dangerous,” Benoît Hamon, a senior MEP, said. “Bayrou is building his party to kill us.”

He was referring to Mr Bayrou’s plan to use his newfound public support to rebrand the UDF as a new Democratic Party that would hold sway between Mr Sarkozy’s Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) and the Socialists.

Mr Bayrou aims to field candidates in all 577 constituencies in the June general election in opposition to both the UMP and the Socialists. His leftward lurch has split the UDF, leaving a majority with Mr Sarkozy’s camp, to which the party had been allied for 30 years. Senior members who have sided with Mr Sarkozy denounced Mr Bayrou for becoming a “Socialist sidekick”.

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