ABSTRACT
This chapter begins by putting the Lionel Jospin campaign into its institutional context, and explores the 'structural' causes of defeat, and the fissiparous incentive structure of the French party system in general and presidential elections in particular. The incentive structure of French Presidential elections strongly induces candidates to 'stand up and be counted' within a French party system already awash with fissiparous tendencies. The chapter considers the contingent causes of defeat, looking at the campaign issues that took centre stage, and the strategy that underpinned Jospin's approach, and some of the misjudgements and misfortunes that undermined his presidential candidacy. The chapter turns to the reaction to the 'earthquake' of first round elimination on 21 April 2002 and regroup the French left ahead of the June 2002 legislative elections. It concludes with French Socialism faced a serious strategic crisis in the aftermath of the events of April-June 2002. The Socialists faced fundamental problems of electoral and political strategy in June 2002.
