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TheGauche Plurielle (French forPlural Left) was a left-wing coalition in France, composed of theSocialist Party (Parti socialiste or PS), theFrench Communist Party (Parti communiste français or PCF), theGreens, theLeft Radical Party (Parti radical de gauche or PRG), and theCitizens' Movement (Mouvement des citoyens or MDC). SucceedingAlain Juppé's conservative government, the Plural Left governed France from 1997 to 2002. It was another case ofcohabitation between rival parties at the head of the state and of the government (Jacques Chirac as president andLionel Jospin as prime minister). Following the failure of the left in the2002 legislative election, it was replaced by another conservative government, this time headed byJean-Pierre Raffarin.
The Plural Left government initiated several reforms, including theCMU social welfare program for indigents, thePACS civil union law, the35 hours workweek, the creation of theFNAEG DNA database, but also severalprivatizations (France Télécom,GAN,Thomson Multimédia,Air France,Eramet,Aérospatiale,Autoroutes du sud de la France). It also passed theSRU Law forcing each commune to have a 20% quota ofhousing projects, the 15 June 2000Guigou law onpresumption of innocence, theTaubira Law recognizingslavery as acrime against humanity, and theLSQ law concerning security. Furthermore, Jospin's government carried out a partialregularization of undocumented immigrants.[1]
During the 1970s, the PS, the PCF and the Left-wing Radicals formed the "Union of Left" based on aCommon Program (1972). But the policy of Socialist leaderFrançois Mitterrand, electedPresident of France in 1981, did not correspond exactly to this programme, notably since 1983. One year later, the Communist ministers resigned. After that, the "Union of Left" was only a circumstantial electoral alliance.
After Mitterrand'sre-election in 1988, the PS and the Left-wing radicals obtained a relative parliamentary majority. However, the PCF chose to support the government only issue-to-issue. Consequently, the PS tried an alliance with the center-right which ultimately failed. Due to its electoral disaster in1993. new PS leader, former Prime MinisterMichel Rocard, called for a political "big-bang", a new attempt of to transcend the traditional Left-Right divide in French politics. This was generally seen as unsuccessful. Rocard resigned the leadership of the PS after its loss in the1994 European Parliament election.
The PS contested the1995 presidential election, but was not in a position to win without electoral alliances. Its candidateLionel Jospin was supported by the PRG and the MDC.
In 1994,Robert Hue succeededGeorges Marchais as head of the PCF. Responding to thefall of communism in Eastern Europe and the USSR, Hue campaigned on broadening the PCF's electoral base. This was part of a larger strategy addressing the PCF's ongoing electoral decline—following the split of the European Communist bloc from theSoviet Union in the 1970s the French Communist Party had entered a period of electoral decline, its electoral vote totals being reduced by half.
The Greens, founded in 1984, benefited from the PS crisis at the beginning of the 1990s. However, their leaderAntoine Waechter refused to integrate the party in the left/right cleavage. Without allies, the Greens were unable to gain seats and enter government. In 1993,Dominique Voynet, who favoured an alliance with the left-wing parties, replaced Waechter.
Jospin lost the second round of the presidential election, but obtained a respectable result. The 5 left-wing parties formed a coalition called the "Plural Left". The name was founded by the Socialist politicianJean-Christophe Cambadélis. It meant the PS wanted to respect its allies and not to impose its hegemony, what the other parties reproached it.
In 1997, President Chirac dissolved theFrench National Assembly before the expected end of term in 1998. Much to his surprise, the left won thelegislative election.
Chirac's then advisor,Dominique de Villepin, is rumoured to have been behind the move.[2] The decision surprised many: although it was the fourth dissolution from a directly-elected President, it was most importantly the first one for no given reason - inspired perhaps by the Westminster tradition.
The left-wing parties were:
The French MPs were elected within 577 single-winner districts through atwo-round system. Tactically, it is near to impossible to win without multiple-party agreements, except when the President's party can draw a large support.
There was little to no platform agreement[3]
The final results:
The balance of power was clear: Socialists were the driving force, and their lack of cohesion might be fixed by the other parties. Jospin became prime minister. On May 14, he announced that the political balance of power would be the same of the first-round results.
In his government, not counting secretaries of state (the third tier in the hierarchy), there were:
In 2000, Jean-Pierre Chevènement resigned because of his opposition to negotiations with the nationalists ofCorsica. Preparing his candidacy for the2002 presidential election, he criticized the governmental policy and proposed to rally the "Republicans of the left and the right".
In 2001, the economic growth slowed. The Communists and some Greens criticized the government's moderate economic policy. The Economy ministers,Dominique Strauss-Kahn and laterLaurent Fabius, were accused of beingsocial liberals because of the privatisation of public companies. They claimed no main social reforms were done after the reduction of working time to35 hours. The parliamentary majority was divided about the law to restrict the dismissals.
The presidential campaign focused on an alleged insecurity problem. In contrast to the right, the left-wing coalition was divided about this problem and had not a clear policy. Finally, those who were disappointed by the "Plural Left" voted for the Trotskyist candidates (Arlette Laguiller,Olivier Besancenot,Daniel Gluckstein).
All the left-wing parties were represented by their candidates. In the first round, Jospin (PS) obtained 16.2%, Chevènement (MDC) 5.3%,Noël Mamère (the Greens) 5.2%, Hue (PCF) 3.4%,Christiane Taubira (PRG) 2.3%. Arriving in third position, Jospin was eliminated and no left-wing candidate contested the second round, leaving space for far-right candidateJean-Marie Le Pen. Two months later, the left lost the2002 legislative elections.
In consequence, Jospin announced his political retirement. Hue stepped down the head of the PCF, replaced byMarie-George Buffet who attempted to continue the PCF's policy of opening towards social movements, including thealter-globalization movement. Chevènement failed to rally all the "Republicans" and founded a new left-wing party, theCitizen and Republican Movement (Mouvement républicain et citoyen or MRC). After an attempt to ally with a part of the far-left, the Greens returned finally in the parliamentary left.