Lionel Jospin, figure of the left, is dead

He was the man who invented “the plural left” when he led a government of cohabitation with President Jacques Chirac from 1997 to 2002. Lionel Jospin died on Sunday March 22, 2026, the day after elections in which the left appeared fractured. He was 88 years old.

The socialist candidate for the 2002 presidential election, eliminated, to everyone’s astonishment and firstly to his own, on the evening of the first round by the qualification of Jean-Marie Le Pen, also left at a time when the extreme right was reaching unprecedented heights.

A figure of French socialism

Born in 1937, first secretary general of the Socialist Party in 1981 after François Mitterrand, a position he held until 1988 then again from 1995 to 1997, he was also Minister of National Education from 1988 to 1992 under the latter’s presidency. He failed twice, in 1995 and in 2002, to become President. The visit to Matignon of this former Trotskyist, however, marked the life of the French.

Under his authority, the 35-hour week, youth employment and PACS were implemented, in a context of growth and decline in unemployment. This “atheist Protestant” and “this austere man who laughs”, as he once defined himself, will remain a respected and honest figure of French socialism.

Political reactions to his disappearance

“Lionel Jospin is a great French destiny,” summarized Emmanuel Macron on X (formerly Twitter). “First secretary of the PS of François Mitterrand, Minister of National Education, Prime Minister, member of the Constitutional Council. Through his rigor, his courage and his ideal of progress, he embodied a high idea of ​​the Republic. »

For Jean-Luc Mélenchon, Lionel Jospin “was a model of high standards and hard work. He will remain the man of the 35 hours, of the red pink green alliance, of the refusal to touch the retirement age. »

Marine Le Pen, who “fought his politics” for many years, also paid tribute to him: “he was (…) a man of the left with integrity, the only one to have had the courage in the aftermath of the 2002 presidential election to denounce the shameless lie of the fascist danger agitated frantically by the right and the left between the two rounds. »