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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Neeka who wrote (249734)	4/22/2002 9:52:08 AM
From: Tom Clarke	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

Socialists weep behind closed doors as scale of humiliation sinks in April 22, 2002 Jospin's team weep behind closed doors From Charles Bremner in Paris TELEVISION cameras and reporters were thrown out of the campaign headquarters of Lionel Jospin, the French Prime Minister and Socialist candidate for the presidency, last night as staff wept in near-silence over the defeat of their chief. The Socialists just did not want the nation to see their grief. The “Workshop”, as M Jospin had called the red-draped one-time theatre, entered a state between shock and disbelief after word filtered through earlier in the evening that the Prime Minister had been eclipsed by Jean-Marie Le Pen. “This isn’t happening. This isn’t happening,” Cecile Pernod, one of the young campaign staff, said as the news sank in. Others hugged each other, knocking plastic coffee cups off their working tables. The television announcement of the Socialist defeat at 8pm triggered a gasp of disbelief and M Jospin withdrew to his fifth-floor office. A crowd of several hundred supporters gathered outside in the street, on the Right Bank, not far from the Pompidou Centre. The anger was palpable as many vowed “revenge” on the far Right in the parliamentary elections next month. “Chirac is going to pay for this. The country will punish the Right for doing this,” one middle-aged man, who claimed that he had always backed the late President Mitterrand, said. Security guards kept the doors firmly closed to the media as ministers came and went, many of them expressing sorrow for M Jospin personally. “This is an extraordinarily cruel blow for Lionel,” Martine Aubry, the former Deputy Prime Minister, who left the Government two years ago, said. “He worked hard for the country and this is what happened.” More than two hours after the polls closed the cameras came on again and M Jospin appeared on the stage, at the podium behind his slogan “Présider Autrement (A different presidency)”. Trembling and looking even greyer than usual, M Jospin clenched his jaw and gracefully accepted defeat. A huge cheer went up, interrupting him. Pleading for silence, he talked of the “thunder clap” that had struck last night with the rise of the far Right. “After five years of work devoted entirely to the service of our country, this is profoundly disappointing for me and for those who accompanied me,” he said. The defeat was a result of rightwing demagogy and the fragmenting of the Left, he said. He added: “I accept full responsibility and am retiring from political life.” The hall erupted with emotion, forcing the Prime Minister to appeal for silence as he completed his sentence, “. . . retiring from political life after the end of the presidential elections”. thetimes.co.uk