French Socialist wants Chirac's post, not palace

PARIS, July 17: France's next president could live in a Paris apartment rather than the official Elysee Palace, walk to work every day and draw from his experience in organising music festivals when setting out policies.

Socialist Jack Lang said be would remain a Frenchman like any other if he was elected next year, vowing to add a more modest touch to what had become a ''sacrilegious'' post under conservative President Jacques Chirac.

''I will live like a normal citizen,'' said Lang, sitting in his large office by the Place des Vosges square, one of the most expensive neighbourhoods in Paris, where the former culture minister also has an apartment.

''I will not live in the Elysee Palace. I will stay at my place ... The president must be accessible, available. He should lead a simple life,'' he said.

Lang earned himself a name in France for creating Paris's annual Fete de la Musique festival in 1982. In the 1980s, he was culture minister when the late Socialist President Francois Mitterrand undertook in his 'Grands Travaux' of major urban works, including the celebrated glass pyramids at the historic Louvre museum.

The 66-year-old Lang is one of around half a dozen so-called Socialist ''elephants'' -- senior male presidential hopefuls who have defended their position in the party for decades, but who have recently been eclipsed by a female relative newcomer.

Half of all Socialist voters want regional leader Segolene Royal to stand in next year's poll, a recent Ifop survey showed, compared to 14 per cent preferring former prime minister Lionel Jospin, and only 9 per cent going for Lang.

But the tanned Lang, who was born into a well-off family from eastern France and developed an early passion for theatre, said opinion surveys should be read with caution. He noted pollsters had also been unable to predict the outcome of the last presidential election in 2002.

''My chances aren't slim,'' he said.

The Socialists are still struggling to overcome their humiliating defeat in the 2002 poll, when far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen forced their candidate Jospin out of the runoff against conservative Chirac.

A WOMAN AMID ELEPHANTS

In the Socialists' 2007 electoral programme, which Lang said included many of his proposals, the party has vowed to raise the minimum wage, halve the unemployment rate and allow gay couples to get married and adopt children. But the programme has received less attention than the political infighting in the last few months, particularly at a time when Chirac's conservative UMP party seemed to be rallying around just one candidate -- Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy.

Analysts have said internal divisions risk hurting the Socialists ahead of the election.

But neither Royal nor any of the ''elephants'' have signalled a readiness to step aside just yet. Socialist party members are to vote for their candidate in November.

Some male Socialist leaders have accused Royal of seeking votes on the political right with macho law-and-order proposals.

Others have accused the mother-of-four of playing up the fact that she is a woman as her main trump card while Laurent Fabius, a former Socialist prime minister, famously asked who would ''look after the children'' if she were elected president.

Lang refrained from attacking Royal openly, but said: ''I hope reason and intelligence will prevail over emotions.''

''WORKED WITH MY HANDS''

Among the veterans, Lang competes with Fabius, Jospin, former finance minister Dominique Strauss-Kahn and possibly Francois Hollande, party leader and father of Royal's children.

Lang said compared to many of the other candidates, he had tasted non-political life as a law professor, and when he helped organise a large cultural festival in the eastern city of Nancy in the 1960s ''with just three pennies''.

''That's something I created with my own hands,'' said Lang, who has written numerous books on subjects ranging from Nelson Mandela to education or employment.

Lang said one of his first acts as president would be to ''tour Europe to return confidence to other countries which have sometimes been treated badly'' by Chirac's government.

Lang has also called for constitutional reforms which would make France's president accountable to parliament and end the head of state's status as ''absolute master'' of the political scene. He vowed to halve the president's expense allowance.

Asked whether he would cycle to the Elysee Palace from his apartment in an effort to be closer to his citizens, Lang said: ''I don't have a bike. But I'm a big walker.''

REUTERS