Paris – Lionel Jospin, the Socialist former prime minister and a fixture in French politics for nearly three decades, said Thursday he will abandon his quest to become the next president of France.
“I confirm, it’s ‘No,”‘ Jospin told RTL radio when asked whether he would be a candidate in the spring election. “I have made the decision that, not being able to rally people together, I don’t want to divide.”
His announcement is a generational moment in French political life. At 69, Jospin – who has twice run in presidential elections and lost – seemed in the public imagination as a bit over the hill.
Jospin, a former economics professor, was running a far distant second in the polls to Segolene Royal, the 53-year-old president of the Poitou-Charentes region, who, in seeking the Socialist nomination, has wooed France with her telegenic smile and pledges to force a “rupture” with the past. Published photos of her in a turquoise bikini while on vacation last summer underscored her youthfulness.
