As the article quotes her as saying 'je revendique cette lignee mitterandienne' you could also have said 'the candidate framed herself as Mitterand's political heir'. Parrainage also evokes something of a mentor-protegee relationship to my ear, though of course it literally is from the term godfather.
Anyway, it's the journalist's words, not Royal's. She definitely speaks of lineage rather than patronage or godfatherage.
