The selection of Lionel Jospin as the French Socialist Party's candidate for the forthcoming presidential elections brings to an end the era of Mitterrand. There is little for the left to celebrate in the choice however.
Jospin owes his success to three principal factors. First, his reputation for moral probity and his ministerial experience made him a more likely candidate to win through to the second round than his rival Henri Emmanuelli.
Second, his criticisms of the Mitterrandian system of power, however half-hearted, gave him the advantage of being less tainted by the calamitous balance-sheet of the past 14 years.
Finally, his independence from the party HQ and the organised currents allowed members to express their discontent with the bureaucratic practices of the recent past.
From this point of view. the outcome of the vote appeared first as a defeat for Henri Emmanuelli, Laurent Fablus and:. the leaders of the Gauche Socialiste. Although employing a temporary left rhetoric, they seemed to wish to preserve the heritage of Mitterrand at any price to get the party to toe the line.
In contrast, Jospin received support from all those currents who had in some way contested Mitterrandism over the past 15 years. This has opened a crisis of legitimacy and of leadership which will continue beyond the election itself, when the difficult phase of 'reconstruction' of the left will begin.
Low expectations While Jospin poses as a direct rival to the right wing favourite for the presidency Edouard Balladur, his real aim seems to be avoiding being knocked out in the first round: "This campaign will be very difficult, it is necessary that we reach the second round, it is possible, it is necessary, ! am convinced that we will be there. I wish to create a surprise."
Jospin is probably right to pitch his expectations low. To defeat Balladur he would have to break much more radically with the heritage of the past Socialist governments. He has always refused to do this, justifying the right wing turn of 1982-83.
His programme confines itself to the institution of a 5 year presidency, the acceptance of the Maastricht treaty, proposals to boost construction and social housing and the taxation of speculative movements of capital. But he Mitterrand: his sucessor, Jospin, aims to come second in elections has nothing to say on the decisive question of the reduction of the working week.
This moderation is in line with the platform adopted by the party's National Bureau, which rejects any break with monetarist austerity, making "acceptance of the market economy" and rejection of "public account deficits" into veritable dogmas. The programme envisages an upturn in economic activity through somewhat higher wages, but pushes off to five years hence the perspective of a 35 hour working week, which will be implemented, in a singularly woolly formula "while guaranteeing wages".
The platform also promises a "new social contract between the state and its social partners" to "maximise productivity gains and divide the surplus from growth between employment, wages and the reduction of working hours".
It, as seems probable, Jospin benefits from the support of the Radicals and the ecologist groupuscule of N. Mamere and A. Buchmann, the polls indicate that he will reach the second round.
The avoidance of the sinister prospect of a Balladur-Chirac duel should make anyone on the left rejoice. But something other than Jospin's benign countenance and soothing words will be needed to transform the political landscape and renew hope. • Christian Picquet is a central leader of the Ligue Communiste Révolutionnaire, French section of the Fourth International.
SOCIALIST OUTLOOK No. 78. 25 February 1995, Page 13.