SÉGOLÈNE ROYAL, the left-wing favourite for the French presidency, emerged triumphant last night after party members anointed her by a heavy majority as the Socialist candidate in the elections next spring.

“I am thrilled by this moment of happiness . . . France is about to write a new chapter in its history,” Ms Royal said after the 218,000 party membership gave her more than 55 per cent of the vote against her two rivals, Dominique Strauss-Kahn and Laurent Fabius.

The 53-year-old president of the Poitou-Charentes region, who was deemed a minor politician only a year ago, appealed to her rivals to rally around her in the race to succeed President Chirac next May.

“This is the moment to gather together our forces. We are going to build something extraordinary together,” a beaming Ms Royal told supporters in the Deux-Sèvres, the western département that she has represented since 1988.

The victory of Ms Royal in the first American-style primary campaign in France was a revolution in the life of the country’s tradition-bound political parties.

The photogenic partner of François Hollande, the Socialist party leader, mounted her campaign outside the party’s hierarchy, preaching values rather than issues and trading heavily on her televisual appeal.

Left-wing traditionalists accuse Ms Royal of populism and selling out to “Blairism”, as the reformist doctrines of the British Prime Minister are known. However, her campaign has resembled new Labour only in its emphasis on moral values, deft use of the media and her ability to connect with the public. On the economy and welfare state she remains firmly in the tradition of French orthodox socialism.

The membership had been expected to give more support to Ms Royal’s two rivals — heavyweights of the party and veterans of government. If she had won less than 50 per cent, the primary would have been extended to a run-off next week.

Ms Royal promised last night not to let success run to her head. “I will remain myself,” she said.

The new Socialist champion will now turn her energy to rallying left-wing and centrist supporterts to her cause in an election that is expected to become a run-off with Nicolas Sarkozy, the champion of the centre-right Union for a Popular Movement. An opinion poll for Le Point magazine yesterday showed the pair running level in a notional run-off.

Mr Strauss-Kahn and Mr Fabius will now be expected to fall into line behind Ms Royal, despite their distaste for a candidate whom they consider to be a lightweight and an usurper.

Meanwhile, Mr Chirac’s allies intensified attempts to derail the presidential campaign of Mr Sarkozy, the leader of their party.

Mr Sarkozy, 51, came under fire at a gathering of the UMP to endorse a campaign manifesto that is tailored for his presidential bid. Michèle Alliot-Marie, the Defence Minister, accused him of dangerous tinkering with a presidential system that was devised for the late Charles de Gaulle. She also rebuked Mr Sarkozy, the Interior Minister and an advocate of tough policing, for treating all youths as potential delinquents. Despite the campaign against him M Sarkozy remains highly likely to be anointed as the UMP candidate at a congress in January.

Mr Sarkozy and Ms Royal have cast themselves as champions of renewal and reform from outside the elite caste that has governed France for the past two generations.

Mr Sarkozy has worsened his poor relations with Mr Chirac by constantly criticising the President’s administration — in which he serves as Deputy Prime Minister.

Mr Chirac’s latest efforts to unsettle him have included signals this week, via Bernadette, his wife, that he may stand again for election rather than retire next spring.

Dominique de Villepin, the Prime Minister and Mr Chirac’s closest ally, this week he rejected Mr Sarkozy’s trademark promise of une rupture — a clean break with the past. “France does not need shock therapy,” Mr de Villepin said.

Mr Sarkozy’s manifesto includes the freezing of EU subsidies to countries that attract investment with low taxes. He also wants new tariffs on goods imported to Europe and measures to prevent jobs being moved abroad from France.

These measures are a balance to his pledges on deregulating the French economy and have worried many French voters, who remain attached to the generous, costly welfare state. France must be protected from “the terrible dangers” of globalisation, Mr Sarkozy said last week.

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