Falling in Polls, French Socialist Offers Platform

PARIS, Feb. 11 -- French Socialist Party candidate Ségolène Royal, attempting to rejuvenate a faltering bid to become the country's first female president, announced a 100-point platform Sunday that includes sending juvenile delinquents to military-style boot camps and providing free contraceptives to women younger than 25.

Royal billed the two-hour speech, delivered before an estimated 15,000 party members but aimed at a national television audience, as a response to critics who say she has articulated few substantive proposals and has leaned too heavily on her femininity and personality.

"The time of imagination and daring has arrived," Royal, clad in a red dress suit and frequently flashing her trademark photogenic smile, told a cheering, placard-waving crowd. "I will forget no one, because France, in order to recover, needs every man and woman."

Royal, who was leading opinion polls in the presidential race just a few weeks ago, has slipped eight points behind her main rival, Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy of the ruling Union for a Popular Movement party, or UMP. Her campaign has been plagued by blunders, gaffes and internal party disputes that included a public spat over taxes between Royal and the party's head -- who is also her longtime partner and the father of her four children.

In the past week, French newspapers and magazines have switched from publishing pictures of a smiling Royal to showing a frowning or scowling Royal.

She was criticized by party members and political commentators for waiting until Sunday, just 10 weeks before election day, to announce her party platform. Royal justified the delay by saying she was unwilling to draft the platform until she and the party had conducted hundreds of public meetings and interviews across France and on the Internet to allow the French people to have input in shaping the platform.

Her proposals, many of which reflect mainstays of the Socialist Party, include increases in retirement benefits for the lowest wage earners, raising the minimum wage, a guarantee of affordable and safe housing for life for the country's poorest citizens, and loans of up to $13,000 to every young person to help give them a start in life.

"As a mother, I want all the children who are born and grow up in France to have the same as my own children," said Royal, 53, who sprinkled the speech with references to motherhood.

In a statement, the opposing UMP party said Royal had proposed "large public expenditures, an omnipresent state, but the candidate abstained from details of how to finance her program."

Royal's platform also contains several controversial ideas she floated earlier in the campaign, including the use of military-style training for juvenile delinquents and the creation of "citizen juries" to critique the performance of elected officials.

She suggested reforming the government bureaucracy by eliminating some ministerial posts.

Royal accused the United States of making mistakes in Iraq "because of its power," adding that France should be a solid partner with the United States but should not be intimidated by it.

Researcher Corinne Gavard contributed to this report.