I. The center and the right in the face of French Socialism: optimistic illusion, scope of the defeat, and the crossroads

1. The Illusion

For the "man in the street" in most countries of the West, the French Social­ist Party is, like so many others, the result of a mere combination of personal interests and ambitions centered around a party program accepted with varying degrees of conviction.

This is easy to understand. World public opinion is informed about socialism mainly through television, radio and the press. The image, partly implicit and partly explicit, of the Socialist Party (SP) projected by the media is usually: a) an electorate consisting mostly of blue collar workers imbued in different degrees with the mentality of the party, but also including many middle class voters whose conciliatory socio-econornic tendencies converge at one point or another with vague philosophical sympathies for a "philanthropic" socialism; b) a party leadership consisting. at least on the upper and middle levels, of professional politicians concerned above all with gain­ing power, and consequently accustomed to flexibility and daring, as well as to prudence and every compromise neces­sary for success.

This general view of socialism is not very objective. It corresponds to the optimistic illusions of many political opponents of the SP, illusions which used considerably to the Party's recent victory, and which have now placed the French voters of the center and the right at a critical pass.