jospin was too young in 81 and was in the minority anyway. since 93, fsp has been led by jospin himself so if you consider it abject, that's pretty much because of him. jospin was an obscure figure of the party, a 'nice guy' with funny curly hair that nobody seemed to take seriously before his group was considered to be the only one clean enough of mitterand's influence to be leading the reform that was necessary after the beginning of the second cohabitation. maybe it is still abject, especially now that the mitterand's era old timers are back in the cabinet (since last year's -?- elections). one thing that was seen as a huge difference between mitterand's sp and jospin's is that the later is protestant (as well as a number of his first cabinet members, incl martine aubry, daughter of jacques delors etc). it was interesting to see how the media saw that as a 'return' of the protestant left (also meaning that is was a _religious_ left with morals, unlike the former sp that was more seen as either a-religious or openly bourgeois-left esp in the last years).
jc helary