Lionel Jospin, the man at the crossroads of France's 'irreconcilable lefts'

Former Socialist prime minister Lionel Jospin (center) leaves the Socialist Party's summer congress accompanied by lawmaker Jean-Luc Mélenchon, in La Rochelle, on August 26, 2006. FRED DUFOUR/AFP

he death of former prime minister Lionel Jospin on Sunday, March 22, marks the closure of a significant chapter in the history of the French left. It is a chapter that contains all the left's enduring contradictions when it comes to holding power, its relationship with radicalism and reformism, and its frequently dashed hopes for unity. Witnesses of Jospin's government (1997-2002) now lead the left: Olivier Faure, François Hollande, Jean-Luc Mélenchon. Could Faure, who was a staffer for Martine Aubry, the minister for employment and solidarity, have imagined he would become the leader of the Parti Socialiste? Mélenchon, then serving as Jospin's junior minister for vocational education, looked up to his elder with reverence.

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Lionel Jospin, the man at the crossroads of France's 'irreconcilable lefts'

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