Analyse the historical and cur

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The French Socialist Party (PS) was established by the conversion of the Section francaise de l'internationale ouvriere (SFIO) in to the PS in 1969. However it wasn't until 1971 at the Epinay-sur-seine conference, when Francois Mitterrand emerged as leader that it began its transformation into France's leading political party. In order to understand the transition that took place within the socialist ranks in the 1980's in France it is necessary to have an idea of the history of the left (RBB, 2000). During the Fourth Republic the Socialists (SFIO) adopted an anti communist stance, due to the influence of the Cold War ethos. It was also deeply involved in the coalition governments of the time often involved in policy and decision making of things that did not tow the party line. For example the SFIO were during the miners' strike in 1948 it was the socialist interior minister, Jules Moch, who sent in troops against striking miners which resulted in at least two deaths (Forbes an Hewlett, 1998, p.17).

During the 1960's the political parties of the left were sorely divided which hit them hard during the elections as low support showed.


The 1974 presidential election was a close run affair. With Pompidou's death the right had been left without an agreed candidate, the economy was deteriorating with inflation at 17%, and unemployment was rising (Gildea, 1997, 97-98). The left on the other hand was united behind Mitterrand, his control over the PS ensuring that factions were quiet. Plus Communist (PCF) support was guaranteed with the Common Program. By the time campaigning started Mitterrand was able to consider himself to be bound by no agreements and campaign on his own platform of moderate reform. Although the PS was locked in to specific policies such as ideas of worker democracy, Mitterrand as presidential candidate was able to build a wider coalition of support including left-leaning Catholics, and ex-gaulists. Mitterrand came within a hair's breadth of beating Giscard d'Estaing getting 49.2% of the vote and the PS did very well in local elections in 1976 and 1977 (Forbes and Hewlett, 1998, p.16). All this led to Mitterrand's position to be strengthened and the PCF's weakened.


Even by the mid 1980's many voters disillusioned by the socialist performance in office, especially the recourse of austerity policies in 1983-84, had deserted the left, leading to defeat in the 1986 parliamentary elections. However this turned out to be a mere 'bump in the road' compared to the 1993 defeat, where the PS left-radical vote dropped to 18.6%, having been 39.5% in 1981 and 37% in 1988 (RBB, IAC Trade and Industry Database, 1999).


The closing years of the Mitterrand era were marked by 'court politics', by a round of disputes between favourites and clans, of corruption in the president's entourage, controversies over the president's activities in the 1930's and 1940's and questions over his later choice of friends. Scandals over the financing of the PS and the distribution of AIDS contaminated blood to haemophiliacs led to the incrimination of the socialist hierarchy, notably the party leader, Henri Emmanuelli, in the first affair and the former prime minister, Laurent Fabius in the second. The image problems of the PS were exacerbated by the vicious in fighting between the Jospin, Fabius and Rocard factions at the 1990 Rennes conference where no majority emerged. Changes in the leadership of the PS made these disputes in to an even larger affair. After Lionel Jospin resigned from the post of first secretary in 1988, he was replaced by the die-hard Pierre Mauroy, to be succeeded in 1992 by Laurent Fabius ( once Mitterrand's heir apparent) and in 1993 by Michel Rocard (Mitterrand's enemy). None was able to broker agreement on a common direction within the party and turn the tide turning against the socialists (RBB,2000).



The formation of the 'plural left' corresponds surprisingly closely to the 'big bang' view of French politics outlined by Rocard in 1993, according to which the new role of the PS was to federate the most innovative members of the ecology, communist and centrist parties. Yet Rocard seemed unaware that restructuring the left meant an implosion of the PS, a process to which he contributed by the party's poor shoeing in the 1994 European elections (which also destroyed his presidential hopes). Renewal had required two rounds of ideological and programmatic change. In the mid-1980's the PS abandoned its Marxist baggage, gave up the temptation of a mixed economy dominated by nationalised firms and accepted the rigours of the internationalised market economy. The transformation was seen as a process of modernisation by some, and as a lurch to the right by others. However the requirement in the late-1990's was to be anchored within the left (RBB, IAC Trade and Industry Database, 1999).


These features indicate that the renewal of the PS constituted a major change in that the party adapted its messages and policies to a changing social and political climate. However by 1997 the confidence of the voters in the PS as a party was still faltering and in need of consolidation (Janine Mossuz Lavau, 1998, 247-62). At this stage it was still unclear whether the PS would remain as a 'catch all' party or try and transform more of a specialist left party like its coalition partners. When Jospin became Prime Minister he wanted to be more centrist much like Tony Blair is in this country. The problem he faced was that he had to and still has to try and keep the PS's coalition partners (PCF and the Greens) happy. This means that many of the policies have had to remain more left than Jospin and the members of the PS would like. However several commentators have tried to point out that the French do not like to 'sit on the fence', but prefer things to be more clear-cut, you are either right or left. So to move to the centre could put a lot of voters off. Perhaps having the coalition partners to keep the PS on the left to some extent, will benefit them in the long run.

In 1999 the PS won the European elections, winning 22 per cent of the vote. While its coalition partners the greens and the PCF took 9 and 7 per cent of the vote respectively. In fact the ruling coalition surfaced as the only left-leaning European government to retain popular support during the elections. With the opposition divided, Jospin's main concerns will be to maintain the status quo within the coalition. The Greens have only one minister compared to the PCF's four and have already expressed their wish for greater representation due to their electoral success (RBB, World of Information Country Report, 2000).

Despite having won recent elections, the PS is not guaranteed success in the future, it still has some problems to deal with. The PCF deputies remain as divided as ever about the merits of participating in government, and it is beginning increasingly to behave like an opposition party. The PCF's behaviour could cause discomfort to the PS, particularly as it could serve to highlight the gap between government rhetoric and reality, as well as the inconsistencies between different areas of policy. Recent events such as the states failed attempt to influence the outcome of a large banking merger, and Jospin's awkward reaction to the planned redundancies announced by the tyre manufacturer, Michelin have already brought into sharper focus the state's growing ineptness in the face of corporate mergers and restructurings. Jospin also constantly has to persuade left-wingers in his party (PS) that his programme is not becoming too centrist. He also has things such as the employer's federation (Medef) to deal with, who, in fact are still smarting over the introduction of the 35-hour week (RBB, Economist Intelligence Unit, 1999).


Bibliography John Ardagh France in the New Century Penguin Group, 1999 Jill Forbes and Nick Hewlett Contemporary France Longman, 1998 Jonathon Fenby On the Brink- the trouble with France Little, Brown and Company, 1998 Robert Gildea France since 1945 Oxford University Press, 1997 Peter A. Hall, Jack Hayward and Howard Machin Developments in French Politics Macmillan Press Ltd, 1994 Janine Massuz Lavau Que veut la gauche plurielle Paris: Editions Odile Jacob, 1998 Reuters Business Briefing Reuters Ltd, 2000