ABSTRACT
Francois Mitterrand brought roses to the tombs of three of the great ancestors of the left entombed at the Pantheon, Jean Jaures, Jean Moulin, and Victor Schoelcher, and was on television the whole time. And the voters gave a far greater vote of confidence to the left—and to the Socialists in particular—several weeks later, when the legislature was elected, than they had to Mitterrand. Mitterrand and the Socialists were vomited in the elections of 1993 and 1994, and it was Michel Rocard's tragedy to have been the leader in 1994. Lionel Jospin reminded the French that the Socialists were simultaneously the carriers of a tradition of solidarity and social compassion, and were capable of "gouverner autrement", governing in a new way, as Rocard had always said. The 1997 election was a victory for conservatism. And the French are a deeply conservative people, it was not surprising that with the arrival of the Jospin government.
