Sep 17, 2007, 10:39 GMT
Paris - Former French prime minister Lionel Jospin is preparing to publish a book in which he unleashes a scathing attack against the losing candidate of this year's presidential election, fellow Socialist Segolene Royal, the daily Liberation reported Monday.
The newspaper published excerpts from the book, which will be published September 24 under the title L'Impasse (Dead End).
In it, Jospin describes Royal as 'a personality who does not possess the human qualities or political abilities... to hope to win the next presidential election.'
Regarding the last election, in which Royal was defeated by Nicolas Sarkozy, Jospin writes that the Socialist candidate 'was the least able of winning' and 'an illusion.'
Despite her courage and poise, Jospin says, Royal was nothing more than 'a secondary figure in (French) public life.'
Jospin also criticizes Royal for not basing more of her campaign on his own achievements as prime minister from 1997 to 2002, which she should have used 'as a base,' he writes.
Jospin has twice run for the French presidency. He lost to Jacques Chirac in 1995 and suffered a humiliating defeat seven years later when he was out-polled by Chirac and right-wing extremist Jean-Marie Le Pen in the first round of the election.
In this year's election, he briefly entered the Socialist primary campaign before withdrawing because of insufficient support among party members.
Liberation reported that the aim of the book was to ensure that Royal does not win the current power struggle for control of the Socialist Party and that she will not be the party's candidate for the presidency in the next election, scheduled for 2012.
It is widely believed that, in the fight for Socialist leadership, Jospin supports the popular mayor of Paris, Bertrand Delanoe.
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