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.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
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