The French left were let down by their leader

He disappeared and left his colleagues with a task much more difficult than it need have been

How does a political party fight an election without a leader? That is the main problem that the French Socialist Party is having to confront in the parliamentary elections, the first round of which took place yesterday. Lionel Jospin, its former general secretary and then Prime Minister for the past five years, vanished into private life after his surprising defeat in the first round of the presidential election.

For the socialists, it was like finding a pile of clothes on a beach left by a friend who had swam out to sea never to return. There was even a note. On the internet site, lioneljospin.net, one can find the following message: "The contents of this site have not been updated since 3 May. Henceforward you can pursue the adventure on three other sites." The message is followed by the web addresses of socialist party organisations.

The leading figures of the socialist party have been traumatised. The former minister of local government, for instance, is now working out of the office of a deputy mayor in the north of Paris. For Mr Jospin's immediate resignation meant that they all had to leave office prematurely.

Technically, the Jospin government could have carried on as a caretaker administration until the results of the elections for the National Assembly were known. And the former ministers feel all the more bitter because they were not allowed any role during the fatal first round of the presidential election. Mr Jospin took the whole burden of the campaign upon himself. It was as if they had been infantilised. Ministers weren't able to tell the electorate – look, this is what we have achieved.

More devastating still, the newly re-elected President, Jacques Chirac, has been able to form an interim government of the right under a temporary prime minister of his own choice.

Admittedly, the new administration cannot put through any legislation, but in the few weeks which it has had at its disposal it has given a good impression of being a real government. In particular, on the key issues of crime and security it has used its limited powers to reorganise the police and the gendarmerie and to give them better equipment.

The new Minister of the Interior has also taken the opportunity to make media events out of visiting known trouble spots. As a result, the right has dominated television news while the socialist party has hardly featured.

What an incredible disservice to his party Mr Jospin has performed. Whatever the final results of the National Assembly election – which will be known in a week's time – the French socialists will always feel that they were badly let down. How it came about is still pretty much a mystery, though bits of the inside story are now beginning to filter out. For anybody interested in politics as an activity the full account, when it can be given, will be fascinating.

What is clear already is that throughout the presidential campaign, Mr Jospin was strangely detached. He announced his candidature to the French people by sending a fax to a news agency. In his message he said he was "rather" pleased to have this dialogue with the electorate. And he told his colleagues privately that he didn't want to be a candidate for the pleasure of being a candidate. He had done that already in 1995.

However, it was his duty to bring the presidency of Jacques Chirac to an end. And in unexpected defeat, he maintained the same tone. He told the ministers whose jobs he had just torpedoed: "What has happened is more an ordeal for you than a personal test for me. I have carried out my role for a certain period and now it is finished. I wish you a very good battle in the parliamentary elections."

Mr Jospin's avowed purpose was more than duty; it was an expression of moral repugnance. During his five years as a socialist Prime Minister cohabiting with a right-wing President, he had come to dislike what he saw as the President's mediocrity and his wait-and-see approach and to resent his low punches and his manoeuvres to escape the courts.

"Everything must be said," he told colleagues. Mr Jospin seemed to believe that if he said as openly as he dared that the President was a scoundrel, then the French people must invite him to take over. So, early in the presidential election campaign, he told a group of journalists that the President was "old, worn out, tired". And that was obviously just for starters. When the remarks created an uproar – and a wave of sympathy for Mr Chirac – Mr Jospin asked, seemingly in wonderment, "isn't that what everybody thinks?"

If Mr Jospin was detached and doing no more than his moral duty, he was, perhaps as a result, supremely confident. He left the planning of the campaign until the last minute. He conducted himself as a president-in-waiting with his colleagues so that none dare contradict him or even argue with him. He kept himself apart. And he even invited a television crew to film inside election headquarters, so that a documentary showing how victory was secured could be shown when the battle was won. Which it wasn't. And so Mr Jospin abruptly disappeared and left his colleagues with a task which is much more difficult than it need have been.

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