Lionel Jospin (France)

Ribbit! Ribbit! croaked the Budweiser frogs.

Lionel Jospin is your archetypal third-way socialist. He did some good things as Prime Minister of France, like introducing a shorter working week and offering more health insurance to the poor. Sadly, he also pursued privatization of many state companies and various other right-wing economic policies, losing support from much of the French left. He also lied about his involvement in a fringe communist organization during his youth. The French, having a fairly well-established tradition for radical politics, probably would've forgiven him for his involvement in the radical group. The fact that he lied about it did more damage to him than anything else. Ultimately, Jospin caused a fragmentation in the French left which led to a humiliating elimination of the Socialist party in the first round of the 2002 presidential elections, making the second and final round a competition between the center-right Chirac and the far-right Le Pen. Chirac's party gained control of the French parliament ... Read more

Jospin was the former Socialist Prime Minister of France. The interesting part about their government is that the head of state and the head of government are both elected leaders. Unlike other countries where the head of state is simply titular, the President wields a significant amount of power. The head of government, which is the prime minister, heads up the Parliament, which has power almost equal to the President. It's a dual system designed primarily to fit Charles De Gaulle's ego, one of the giants of the 20th Century. He assumed that the Parliament would be docile to his initiatives and that as a popularly elected leader he would be able to politically influence the elections. De Gaulle did get his way during his time there, but there have been periods in the history of the 5th Republic where you've had the Head of State from the conservative party and the head of govenrment from the liberal party. This ends up becoming tricky when France is party to a foreign treaty and it mu... Read more

Il a fait de grandes choses

This man makes Chirac look like a honest to gosh cowboy.

He's French....enough said.

He is a French and a socialist... can it get any worse?

he is playing into the hands of global powers.

Most French politicians suck - I don't know much about LJ but I suspect that he sucks too....

defining the future of the left?