The French Prime Minister, Mr Lionel Jospin, reportedly spent 10 days preparing the speech he delivered on yesterday's 20th anniversary of the election of Francois Mitterrand. It was a disappointment nevertheless to his dispirited Socialist Party. There was no rousing rhetoric on the longevity of the union of the left, not a hint of relevance to today's France or the future.
Mr Jospin carefully carved out the 10-year period from 1971 until the 1981 victory for analysis. France had been ruled by Gaullists since 1958, and Mr Mitterrand built up the Socialist Party and engineered a common programme with the communists in the 1970s.
"What Francois Mitterrand contributed was a strategy, a political synthesis, a dialectic between the opposition and government, a project and a vision of France, Europe and the world," Mr Jospin said.
Mr Jospin avoided the late president's earlier history, when he was decorated by the Vichy collaborationist regime and served as justice minister while French forces tortured in Algeria. He also skipped the 14 years of Mitterrand's presidency as if to suggest that financial scandals and high unemployment discredited the whole era. Other speakers however recalled Mr Mitterrand's accomplishments: five weeks of annual paid holidays, retirement at 60 and abolition of the death penalty.
Mr Jospin arrived late enough to avoid meeting the former foreign minister, Mr Roland Dumas, who risks a prison sentence when the verdict is delivered in his corruption trial on May 30th.
Mitterrand's widow Danielle, who was recently questioned in relation to her son's alleged involvement in weapons trafficking, also attended. The Francois Mitterrand Institute planned a concert for 30,000 at the Bastille last night, with the late president's face projected on a giant screen.
There was a strange discrepancy between Mr Jospin's cold appraisal of a distant period and speeches by Mitterrand cronies like Mr Pierre Berge. "I believe in the force of the spirit and I shall remain with you," Mr Berge quoted Mr Mitterrand.
The left has grown morose since losing nationwide municipal elections in March. Unease is spreading now at Mr Jospin's failure to respond to Chancellor Gerhard Schroder's proposals for a federal Europe. Mr Jospin merely alluded yesterday to Mr Mitterrand's commitment to Europe in the 1970s. He risks appearing irrelevant.
