Jospin signals readiness for Socialist role

Paris - The honourable loser of France's presidential contest, Lionel Jospin, said yesterday that he was prepared to oversee the renewal of the Socialist Party if that was what its members wanted, writes Mary Dejevsky.

Speaking at a seminar on the future of the party, held near the Disneyland-Paris complex, Mr Jospin appeared ready to return to a leading position in the party, of which he was first secretary in the Eighties.

Yesterday's decision appeared to end speculation about Mr Jospin's role, which began when he won the first round of the presidential election and gained a creditable 47 per cent of the second-round vote. His performance was remarkable, as the party was deeply divided and he was nominated as the party's candidate at a late stage. But it left the Socialists with the problem of what to do with him.

Had he won, the party would have reunited around him; if he had been badly defeated, it could have carried on without him. As it was, he was acknowledged by many party members as the one person who could make the France's Socialists electable again. To members of a party that has never truly been ''modernised'' along Social Democratic lines, it was Mr Jospin's combination of moral rectitude and German-style social democratic precepts that gave the party a new relevance.

According to a timetable provisionally agreed yesterday, draft policy proposals will be submitted to a vote of party members in the autumn, followed by a conference to approve the result.

There, Mr Jospin is expected to be offered the new post of party president, which would allow the present first secretary, Henri Emmanuelli, to remain in place, so avoiding a damaging split.

Mr Jospin's decision to accept a role in the party's future reportedly followed weeks of personal agonising, about whether, at the age of 57, he was too old, and how far he was prepared to sacrifice his private life. He was married for the second time last year.

Between the election and yesterday, Mr Jospin spoke only once about his relations with the party, to criticise inadequate support from the party machine in the early stages of the campaign.