The problem the left had was the dominant position that the communist party (PCF) had always he

In 1999 the PS won the European elections, winning 22 per cent of the vote. While its coalition partners the greens and the PCF took 9 and 7 per cent of the vote respectively. In fact the ruling coalition surfaced as the only left-leaning European government to retain popular support during the elections. With the opposition divided, Jospin's main concerns will be to maintain the status quo within the coalition. The Greens have only one minister compared to the PCF's four and have already expressed their wish for greater representation due to their electoral success (RBB, World of Information Country Report, 2000).

The 1974 presidential election was a close run affair. With Pompidou's death the right had been left without an agreed candidate, the economy was deteriorating with inflation at 17%, and unemployment was rising (Gildea, 1997, 97-98). The left on the other hand was united behind Mitterrand, his control over the PS ensuring that factions were quiet. Plus Communist (PCF) support was guaranteed with the Common Program. By the time campaigning started Mitterrand was able to consider himself to be bound by no agreements and campaign on his own platform of moderate reform. Although the PS was locked in to specific policies such as ideas of worker democracy, Mitterrand as presidential candidate was able to build a wider coalition of support including left-leaning Catholics, and ex-gaulists. Mitterrand came within a hair's breadth of beating Giscard d'Estaing getting 49.2% of the vote and the PS did very well in local elections in 1976 and 1977 (Forbes and Hewlett, 1998, p.16). All this led to Mitterrand's position to be strengthened and the PCF's weakened.

Then came the surprise dissolution of the Assemblee Nationale by president Chirac on 21st April 1997, it back fired some what on Chirac, because it caught the right napping, but accelerated the regrouping of the left. The PS involved itself in many agreements with other parties from the left such as the PCF and the Greens, mainly so that their candidates would not contest each other. In consequence the gauche plurielle was able to put forward the left's most united front for two decades, with the PS leading the way (Ardagh, 1999, pp.29-30).

Francois Hollande, the current first secretary, stressed the necessity of this repositioning, he believed that if the PS were to occupy the centre and abandon the left then they would run the risk of electoral sanction. Implementation of this strategy has been threefold. In their discourse, the socialists have returned to stressing the traditional left-wing values of social justice and equality. In terms of a strategy of government, Prime Minister Jospin avoided the opening to the centre deployed by Rocard in 1988-91 and offered the plurality of his cabinet and parliamentary majority as guarantee of a left-wing orientation. In terms of legislative and policy programme, the left sought to reduce unemployment and social exclusion, to promote equality between the sexes and reinforce minority rights.

Some common words found in the essay are:
Jospin PS, PCF Greens, Common Program, Forbes Hewlett, Country Report, Indeed French, Minister Jospin, Hayward Machin, Rocard Mitterrand's, Francois Hollande, coalition partners, prime minister, forbes hewlett, pcf greens, forbes hewlett 1998, hewlett 1998, trade industry database, laurent fabius, industry database, left rbb, rbb iac trade, common program, iac trade industry, industry database 1999, database 1999,
Approximate Word count = 2131
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page double spaced)