Hello you're very welcome to Longreads, a Jacobin podcast where we look in

depth at political topics and thinkers. My name's Daniel Finn and the

future's editor here at Jacobin and I'll be presenting the show.

France was one of the last countries in Western Europe to elect a

social democratic government after the war. When Francois Mieterone became the

country's president back in 1981, he established the socialist party as a

regular party of government. For the next 36 years, the French socialists took

turns in office with their conservative rivals. But the old party system

collapsed in the last French presidential election and doesn't seem to be

coming back. What was the history that brought the French left to its current

state of crisis and doesn't show what other countries are going to experience

in the future? Our guest today is Fabian Escalona, a journalist for the French

publication MediaPAR. What was the position of French socialism when the

party socialist was launched in 1969 and how did it relate to the French

communist party which was much larger at the time? In 1969, the socialist party

was very weak. It's electoral performance at the presidential election this

year was a disaster, only 6% of the votes. And the year before the legislative

performance was less catastrophic, but the party was member of a wider

centre-left coalition which gets 16% of the votes. Behind the communist party

which gets 20% of the votes. Actually, since the liberation after the war,

the socialist party has been outstriped by the French communist party, where

has it has been the leading force of the labor movement before the war. So

...