Mrs Royal has been accused of a 'pitiful' approach to private enterprise by the country's business leaders.

Although she has claimed to want to reconcile her compatriots with their employers, business leaders say her approach smacks of French Left-Wing orthodoxy.

She has backed, for instance, the Socialist Party proposal to increase the minimum wage by 100 euros a month and called for a substantial rise in some state pensions.

Pledging to 'frighten capitalists', Mrs Royal has also threatened taxes on companies which outsource jobs and additional tariffs when these firms import products back into France - a proposal likely to be ruled illegal by the European Commission.

Like other French socialists, she wants a wide-ranging overhaul of stock options and a big state investment in research and development programmes.

Mrs Royal has hinted at reform of the taxation system to shift the burden onto financial gains and away from the social charges levied on salaries.

After a debate on economic policy involving Mrs Royal and the two men she defeated in the socialist primary, Denis Gautier Sauvagnac, head of the French Union of Metal Industries, described the party's proposals as 'pathetic'.

'No one has the slightest idea how all this will be financed,' he said.

According to one estimate, the socialist programme, which forms the basis of Mrs Royal's policies, would increase public spending by 32 per cent.

However, some observers say Mrs Royal is more pragmatic than she has appeared during the primary campaign, when she had to play to Left-Wing party members.

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