Prime Minister Reduced France's Workweek

Former Prime Minister Lionel Jospin, who brought France its 35-hour workweek and then withdrew from politics after leading the nation's Socialist Party to an earth-shaking presidential election defeat against far-right firebrand Jean-Marie Le Pen, has died. He was 88. Jospin died on Sunday, the AP reports. Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu posted on X that Jospin "served France with constancy, rigor and a sense of responsibility" and that "his actions, guided by a certain vision of social progress and republican values, leave a lasting mark and a model of commitment."

Jospin was an economics professor before being unexpectedly named head of the Socialist Party in 1981 by newly elected President Francois Mitterrand. Untarnished by allegations of corruption, Jospin reestablished credibility for the Socialists after bribery and fraud scandals led to their downfall in the 1993 parliamentary elections. He became prime minister in 1997, holding the post until 2002 while leading a broad left-wing government under conservative President Jacques Chirac in a power-sharing arrangement dubbed "cohabitation." As prime minister, Jospin resisted shifting the French left toward free-market reforms embraced at the time in Britain. He enacted France's parity law, required political parties to field the same number of male and female candidates in national elections, installed civil unions for LGBTQ+ and straight couples, and lowered the workweek from 39 hours to 35 hours, hailed as a social breakthrough by supporters but criticized by opponents as a shackle for the economy.

Jospin never embraced his role as a public figure, hampered by a restrained personality that grew stiffer in front of cameras. He abandoned politics after his shocking loss to Le Pen in the first round of presidential voting in 2002. Jospin was born to a midwife who, according to family lore, used the works of Voltaire to raise her pelvis while she was in labor. "She believed I would have the spirit of Voltaire," he said. Jospin said his childhood memories of Nazi-occupied Paris tinged his outlook into adulthood. "I have the memory of the importance of silence," he said. "If you weren't quiet, you ran the risk of putting people in danger. Certainly in political life I've retained a certain horror of talkativeness."