Are the French ready for a woman president? We will soon find out, for the decision of the country's mainstream centre-right party to pick a woman as its candidate for France's forthcoming presidential ballots has already galvanised the French electoral campaign and may yet have a profound effect on wider European politics.

The Republicans (Les Republicains), the party of General Charles de Gaulle, the founder of the current French republic, have changed their name countless times since the 1950s, yet they never sent a woman into the race for the Elysee presidential palace. However, Mrs Valerie Pecresse has now not only broken that invisible glass ceiling, but she has also scrambled predictions for next year's presidential elections.