Socialist Party (France) : Ask Biography

The Socialist Party ( , PS) is a social-democratic political party in France and the largest party of the French centre-left. It is one of the two major contemporary political parties in France, along with the center-right Union for a Popular Movement. The party replaced the earlier French Section of the Workers' International (SFIO) in 1969, and is currently led by Martine Aubry.

The PS first won power in 1981, when its candidate François Mitterrand was elected President of France in the 1981 presidential election. Under Mitterrand, the party achieved a governing majority in the National Assembly from 1981 to 1986 and again from 1988 to 1993. PS leader Lionel Jospin lost his bid to succeed Mitterrand as president in the 1995 presidential election against Gaullist leader Jacques Chirac but became prime minister in a cohabitation government after the 1997 parliamentary elections, a position he held until 2002, when he was again defeated in the presidential election. In 2007, the party's candidate for the 2007 presidential election, Ségolène Royal, was defeated by Nicolas Sarkozy.

The PS is a member of the Party of European Socialists (PES) and the Socialist International (SI).