France

Who was Lionel Jospin, the former French premier who died at 88

A central figure in the French Socialist Party, he was Prime Minister between 1997 and 2002 during his cohabitation with Jacques Chirac

by Angelica Migliorisi

23 March 2026

L’ex primo ministro francese Lionel Jospin REUTERS

4' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

4' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

On 16 July 1997 Lionel Jospin sits at the table of the Council of Ministers at the Elysée Palace, in front of the President of the Republic Jacques Chirac. It has not yet been a month since his arrival in Matignon, but it is enough for him to fix a point: political legitimacy stems from the parliamentary vote and it is up to the government to guide the country's action. Jospin died on 22 March at the age of 88, after months marked by health problems, about which he had spoken last January, reporting 'major' surgery without further details. The news was announced by his family.

That point set in 1997 would mark his entire life: Jospin would always remain there, within the institutions, without theatrics. Even when power would become more complex. He governs a France grappling with entry into the euro, which imposes stringent constraints on public accounts, companies reorganise in an economy increasingly open to global competition, relocations begin to affect industrial work, unemployment remains high and the pressure on welfare increases. The left - his left - has to measure itself against all this, and so he sets another point:"Yes to market economy, no to market society".

The government he leads stems from an alliance that holds together almost all the families of the left, socialists, communists, greens, radicals, the so-called 'gauche plurielle'. A majority exists, but it has to be built every time. Jospin works on the texts, pays attention to detail, checks all the steps. Journalists of the time speak of intense meetings, of little room left for improvisation.

It is on labour that the government really reveals itself, when it introduces the reduction of working hours to 35 hours. Objective, to affect unemployment. The measure runs through the entire legislature and divides the country. Then come theemplois-jeunes - contracts financed by the state to get young people into work, especially in public and social services - access to healthcare is expanded, new protection instruments are provided. And, in the meantime, some large public enterprises are opened up to the market, others privatised.

The Michelin case, which in 1999 announced thousands of redundancies despite growing profits, upset that balance. The decision triggered controversy because it made it clear that even healthy companies were willing to cut jobs in order to compete, undermining the role of the state in protecting them. Jospin, on that occasion, states that the state cannot do everything ("L'État ne peut pas tout"). Words that mark a distance with a part of his base.

Yet, he does not retreat, because that line comes from afar. In the 1960s, Jospin crossed over to the extreme Trotskyist left, under the name of "Michel". His is a discreet militancy, emerging much later. And when it does, he does not deny it, rather he places it within a longer, formative path that leads him to reformism without sudden breaks.

In the years of François Mitterrand, he grew up within the Socialist Party. It is he who holds the structure together.In 1981, he became first secretary as the left came to the Elysée Palace. He works on the currents, builds balances and, above all, consolidates the party. He describes himself as 'a rigid who evolves, an austere who enjoys himself, a Protestant atheist'.

Even the relationship with Mitterrand is not linear. With time, distances emerged, up to the choice ofdiscussing the socialist legacy of the 1980s. Criticising that season, he distanced himself from the then President of the Republic, while remaining within the same political perimeter: even when the two worked together, Jospin had maintained a style less prone to political compromises and personalised management of power.

He came to the government when he seemed to be out of the picture. In 1993, he lost his parliamentary seat and left. Two years later, he returns as a candidate for the Elysée and surprises by reaching the runoff. He is defeated, but regains control of the Socialist Party and rebuilds its line. Thus his'left-wing realism' takes shape.

Two more years passed and victory in the legislative elections brought him through the doors of the Palais Matignon. The government lasted five years, holding up cohabitation, accompanying France into the euro and avoiding institutional crises. The majority, however, is divided and the relationship with the electorate remains fragile. He keeps repeating: "Politics is not a show".

In 2002, when the left was divided in the presidential elections, the vote dispersed. Jospin stays out of the second round, also overtaken by Jean-Marie Le Pen. The same evening he announces: "J'en tire les conséquences", "I assume the consequences". And he retires.

In 2006 he said he was open to a new run for the Elysée without, however, materialising, he entered the Constitutional Council in 2015 and in 2020, with the book Un temps troublé, he criticised French economic and social policies, calling Macronism a "neo-liberalism adorned with progressivism". Jospin remained there, as he had hinted so many years before, throughout his life.