French Socialism Embraced Neoliberalism and Signed Its Death Warrant
In the 1980s, François Mitterrand brought the French Socialists to power. A generation later, they’re in danger of extinction — and they brought it upon themselves.
François Mitterand in Strasbourg, France, 1979. (Jean Muscat / Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images)
France was one of the last countries in Western Europe to elect a social democratic government after the war. When François Mitterrand became the country’s president in 1981, he established the Parti Socialiste (PS) as a regular party of government. For the next thirty-six years, the French Socialists took turns in office with their conservative rivals.
But the old party system collapsed in the last presidential election and doesn’t seem to be coming back. The PS candidate Benoît Hamon dropped to fifth place with a single-digit vote share, and the party’s current standard-bearer, Anne Hidalgo, is flatlining ahead of this year’s presidential election.
What was the history that brought the French left to its current state of crisis, and does it show what other countries are going to experience in the future?
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