Socialist Party (France)

The Socialist Party (Parti Socialiste or PS), founded in 1969, is the main opposition party in France. Although it has historically been a democratic socialist party, and still defines itself as such, most political scientists would say that it is now a social democratic party. A democratic socialist party has existed in France under various names since 1880. For a century, however, it had only fleeting electoral success. In 1981, under François Mitterrand, party won both the presidency and (with allies) a majority in the National Assembly for the first time, and was president for 14 years.

Recent politics and policies

In 1984 Mitterrand and his second Prime Minister, Laurent Fabius, made a sharp change of course and abandoned any further socialist measures. Since then, the Socialists have been in practice a moderate social democratic party, largely embracing the market economy. Because of this, the Socialist party is often criticised by groups further to the left such as the Workers' Struggle (Lutte Ouvrière) and the Revolutionary Communist League as being no longer a truly socialist party.

Related Topics:
1984 - Laurent Fabius - Social democratic - Market economy - Workers' Struggle - Revolutionary Communist League

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

At the 1995 presidential election, Mitterrand retired, and the Socialist candidate, Lionel Jospin, was defeated by Jacques Chirac. In 1997, however, the Socialists gained a majority in the National Assembly and Jospin became Prime Minister, following a policy that was broadly progressive but had little to do with socialism as traditionally understood. Chirac again defeated Jospin in the presidential elections of 2002, and Jospin then retired from politics. Later in 2002 the Socialists were defeated by Chirac's allies in parliamentary elections. In the 2004 regional elections, however, the Socialists had a major comeback. In coalition with the Greens and Communists, they gained power in 20 of the 22 metropolitan regions (all except Alsace and Corsica) and in the four overseas regions. The leader of the Socialist Party is now its secretary-general, François Hollande.

Related Topics:
1995 - Lionel Jospin - Jacques Chirac - 1997 - 2002 - 2004 regional elections - Alsace - Corsica - François Hollande

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

With respect to national politics, however, the Socialist Party has since the 2002 defeat experienced considerable difficulty trying to propose an alternative program to the policy of the right. One factor is the latent divisions between presidential hopefuls François Hollande, Dominique Strauss-Kahn and Laurent Fabius; another is the internal movement, the Nouveau Parti Socialiste ("New Socialist Party") led by Arnaud Montebourg, which pushes for more "left-wing" policies.

Related Topics:
François Hollande - Dominique Strauss-Kahn - Laurent Fabius - Arnaud Montebourg

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

On December 1, 2004, 59% of the members of the Socialist Party decided to approve the proposed European Constitution. However, several well-known members of the Party, including Laurent Fabius, Henri Emmanuelli and Jean-Luc Mélenchon, asked the voters to vote "no" in the 29 May 2005 French referendum on the European Constitution, at which the proposed Constitution was rejected.

Related Topics:
December 1 - 2004 - European Constitution - Laurent Fabius - Henri Emmanuelli - Jean-Luc Mélenchon - 29 May - 2005 - French referendum on the European Constitution

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The split over the European Constitution, and ambitions for the Socialist candidacy to the 2007 presidential election, have led the party into considerable disarray. The party is due to hold a general congress in November 2005 in order to settle the matters.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~