Former French prime minister Lionel Jospin, a Socialist who introduced the 35-hour work week and civil partnerships for gay couples, has died aged 88, his family said Monday.
Read moreOn This Day in 2002: Doomed Socialist favourite laughs off threat of Le Pen in presidential final
Jospin – who was head of government from 1997 to 2002 before losing to the far right in presidential polls – died on Sunday, they told AFP.
He had said he had a "serious operation" and had returned home to rest in January, without providing details.
French President Emmanuel Macron said Jospin "embodied a noble vision of the Republic."
"Lionel Jospin is a towering figure in French politics: first secretary of the Socialist Party under François Mitterrand, minister for education, prime minister, and member of the Constitutional Council," the French president wrote on social media platform X.
Jospin ran for president in 2002, casting himself as a clean pair of hands compared with his conservative rival, the corruption-tainted but chummy and charismatic Jacques Chirac.
But then far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen beat him to the runoff, forcing his voters to rally around Chirac in the second round.
His daughter and current far-right leader Marine Le Pen also reacted to his death.
"Lionel Jospin was a political opponent whose policies we opposed when he was prime minister," Le Pen wrote on X.
"Nevertheless, he was also a man of integrity on the left, the only one who had the courage, in the aftermath of the 2002 presidential election, to denounce the shameless lie of the fascist threat that was being frantically stirred up by both the right and the left between the two rounds."
(FRANCE 24 with AFP, Reuters)
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