This Europe: Jospin's silence is broken by his wife

By John Lichfield in Paris

Five months ago, the Socialist prime minister Lionel Jospin, beaten in the first round of the presidential election, vanished from French politics. Since then, he has not said a word in public.

To the consternation of some of his former colleagues, the wounded Jospin silence has finally been broken – not by Monsieur but by Madame.

Sylviane Agacinski, a respected writer and philosophy teacher, has published her diary of her husband's disastrous campaign and the first weeks of self-imposed exile in his holiday home on the Ile de Ré, near La Rochelle.

There is nothing especially startling in the book. Ms Agacinski is extremely rude about the eventual victor, President Jacques Chirac. She says his "cynical" law and order campaign helped the far right. She criticises voters for their lack of judgement in choosing a man with such a dishonest record.

She also criticises the left, which she says prefers "powerless rebellion" to the messy compromise of government, and blames the media for ruining her husband's chances by presenting an artificially defeatist picture of France.

The publication of the book, Journal Interrompu (Interrupted Diary), has been taken by senior figures on the left and by some of the press as a sign that Mr Jospin is planning a comeback. One Socialist said he was convinced that, Napoleon-like, Mr Jospin was awaiting the moment when he would be recalled. "He wants to be wanted again and he is convinced that the time will come." But Ms Agacinski denies the book was published with any such intentions.

Mr Jospin came third in the first round of the election on 21 April, behind Mr Chirac and the far-right leader, Jean-Marie Le Pen. In an interview with Le Monde, his wife said he still feels betrayed by the hundred of thousands of left-wing supporters who failed to vote. "People come up to him on the street and say, 'Come back, we need you.' He tells them, 'I was there on 21 April. It was you who weren't there.'"