Mr. Valls worked for Mr. Rocard when he was prime minister. Mr. Rocard served only three years as prime minister, from 1988 to 1991, but his lasting influence on the Socialists outstripped his brief tenure and relatively modest accomplishments in office. Advertisement Continue reading the main storyBut Mr. Mitterrand was in some ways forced to appoint Mr. Rocard as prime minister in the spring of 1988: The younger man was among the most popular political figures in France. That desire brought Mr. Rocard up against powerful countercurrents in the French Socialist Party. PhotoPARIS — Michel Rocard, a former French prime minister who embodied a pragmatic, market-friendly element in the Socialist Party, but whose reformist zeal encountered powerful countercurrents on the left, died on Saturday in Paris.

Source: New York Times July 04, 2016 20:16 UTC