III.

Prime Minister

After the elections, Chirac asked Jospin to form a new government, and Jospin replaced Juppé as the country’s prime minister. Jospin and fellow Socialists had campaigned on promises to create new jobs and get France’s partners in the European Union to loosen the economic requirements for monetary union. In office, Jospin struggled to fulfil contradictory campaign pledges made by various elements of his coalition in the course of his somewhat unexpected election victory. He pushed the introduction of a plan to reduce France’s working week in order to share jobs and reduce unemployment, along with other structural reforms to France’s economic system, continuing with the privatization of French state assets despite election promises to the contrary. In the winter of 1997-1998 he responded with a mixture of concessions and force to demonstrations and occupations of state benefit offices by unemployed groups.

Opinion polls gave Jospin a consistently high approval rating, but local elections in March 1998 showed a fall-off in support for the Socialists. From March 1999 Jospin joined Chirac in firmly supporting military action by the Western European powers against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia over its policies in Kosovo, but faced challenges from dissenters in his own party. However, France contributed the second-largest force to the NATO-led forces. In December the European Commission finally took France to the European Court of Justice over the country's refusal to lift the ban on imports of British beef after the Europe-wide ban was lifted in July. Politicians were reluctant to make a move over public health issues in France following the scandal involving former prime minister Laurent Fabius and HIV-contaminated blood. In February, Jospin caused a storm in the Arab world during a visit to Israel that he was forced to cut short after he described Lebanese resistance to Israeli occupation as “terrorism”, undermining France's official policy of neutrality on the conflict.

The plan for Corsican autonomy unveiled in July by Jospin, conditional upon the end of Corsican nationalist violence, caused controversy and prompted the resignation of Interior Minister Jean-Pierre Chevènement. Followed by an oil crisis in September and an alarming rise in the cases of BSE in French cattle, it undermined the stability of Jospin's coalition government. In a referendum the electorate supported the plan to reduce the presidential term to five years; the change, supported by Jospin, would increase presidential accountability and shorten periods of 'cohabitation', where a president and prime minister come from different parties. In December the National Assembly voted to delay parliamentary elections in 2002 until after the April presidential election. This was regarded as a victory for Jospin, whose chances in the presidential election could not be spoiled by any poor showing of the Socialist Party in the poll. In regional elections in March 2001 the left-wing coalition took Paris and Lyon from the right, but otherwise made a net loss of seats.

Following revelations in the press, Jospin was forced to admit to his former links with a Trotskyite organization in a statement to the National Assembly in June—he had previously denied any association with hard-left groups. In two rulings in January 2002, the Constitutional Court ruled Jospin's plan for Corsican autonomy, and his desire to finance the 35-hour working week from social security funds, as unconstitutional. Despite these setbacks, in February Jospin declared himself a candidate for the presidential election due in April. A lacklustre campaign and a record number of abstentions in the first round of voting saw Jospin defeated into third place by Chirac and, surprisingly, the National Front leader Jean-Marie Le Pen. Following the result Jospin announced his retirement from politics.