Socialist Party Development after 2002

Abstract

François Hollande, in the position of First Secretary of the Socialist Party, was Lionel Jospin’s Jospin. From 1981 to 1988, Jospin had been Mitterrand’s placeman at the head of the party and thus owed his authority to his ability to speak on behalf of the president. In 1997 Jospin had placed the little-known but well-liked Hollande at the head of the party, and the First Secretary’s authority derived from his closeness to Jospin. Like Jospin in 1981, Hollande was no threat to the absent (real) leader and maintained a sedulous balance within the party, but built up no independent support of his own. Jospin’s disappearance might have touched off a round of infighting, but there were no obvious successors. Nobody was in a position to force the issue, and in the run-up to the 2002 general election after Jacques Chirac’s re-election, a facade of unity was required to save seats.