Lionel Jospin (born 12 July 1937) is a French statesman.

Lionel Jospin was educated at the École nationale d'administration.

Entering the French Socialist Party in 1971, he became the leader of the party when François Mitterrand was elected president in 1981, then minister of education between 1988 and 1992.

Member of the National Assembly, first as a representative of Paris (1978-86), then of Haute-Garonne (1986-88), he was defeated in 1993.

In 1995, he lost the presidential election against Jacques Chirac, but became Prime Minister in 1997 when Chirac called an early election for the National Assembly — and his party lost.

Despite his previous image of rigid socialist, he went on selling state participations, lowered the VAT rate, income tax and company tax. His government also introduced the 35-hour week, provided additional health insurance for the poorest, promoted the representation of women in politics, and created the PACS (a civil partnership or union between two people, whether of opposite genders or not). During his term, with the help of a favorable economic situation, unemployment fell by 900,000.

Jospin contested the presidential campaign of 2002, however it focused mainly on law-and-order issues, in which the government had admittedly not achieved convincing results. The prime minister was also strongly criticized by the far left for his moderate economic policies, which, they contended, was not sensibly different from that of a right-wing government favoring businesspeople and free markets. Many candidates contested the election, gaining small percentages of the vote in the first ballot, chipping away at Jospin's support. As a result, Jospin narrowly polled in third place, behind Front National leader Jean-Marie Le Pen, and thus did not go through to the run-off second round of voting. was defeated in the first round of the election. The story of the campaign is told in the documentary Comme un coup de tonnerre.

Following his defeat in April 2002, he declared his decision to leave politics. He has since made episodic comments on current political affairs; for instance, he declared his opposition to Censored page.

See also:

• Politics of France
• List of Prime Ministers of France

Jospin's Ministry, 4 June 1997 - 7 May 2002

• Lionel Jospin - Prime Minister
• Hubert Védrine - Minister of Foreign Affairs
• Alain Richard - Minister of Defense
• Jean-Pierre-Chevènement - Minister of the Interior
• Dominique Strauss-Kahn - Minister of Economy, Finance, and Industry
• Martine Aubry - Minister of Employment and Solidarity
• Elisabeth Guigou - Minister of Justice
• Claude Allègre - Minister of National Education, Research, and Technology.
• Catherine Trautmann - Minister of Culture and Communication
• Louis Le Pensec - Minister of Agriculture and Forests
• Dominique Voynet - Minister of Environment and Regional Planning
• Marie-George Buffet - Minister of Youth and Sport
• Censored page - Minister of Transport, Housing, and Equipment
• Daniel Vaillant - Minister of Relations with Parliament
• Émile Zuccarelli - Minister of Civil Service, Reform of the State, and Decentralization

Changes

• 20 October 1998 - Jean Glavany succeeds Le Pensec as Minister of Agriculture and Forests.
• 2 November 1999 - Christian Sautter succeeds Strauss-Kahn as Minister of Economy, Finance, and Industry.
• 28 March 2000 - Laurent Fabius succeeds Sautter as Minister of Economy, Finance, and Industry. Jack Lang succeeds Allègre as Minister of National Education, while Roger-Gérard Schwartzenberg succeeds him as Minister of Research and Technology. Catherine Tasca succeeds Trautmann as Minister of Culture and Communication. Michel Sapin succeeds Zuccarelli as Minister of Civil Service and Reform of the State.
• 29 August 2000 - Daniel Vaillant succeeds Chevènement as Minister of the Interior. Jean-Jack Queyranne succeeds Vaillant as Minister of Relations with Parliament.
• 18 October 2000 - Elisabeth Guigou succeeds Aubry as Minister of Employment and Solidarity. Marylise Lebranchu succeeds Guigou as Minister of Justice.
• 10 July 2001 - Yves Cochet succeeds Voynet as Minister of Environment and Regional Planning.
• 25 February 2002 - François Patriat succeeds Glavany as Minister of Agriculture and Forests.

Preceded by: Alain Juppé

Prime Minister of France 1997-2002

Followed by: Jean-Pierre Raffarin