The wife of former French prime minister Lionel Jospin is publishing a diary chronicling the election campaign that led to his shock defeat in the presidential election in April.

On April 21, I was there. You were the ones who failed to show up

Lionel Jospin

Mr Jospin, a socialist who had been prime minister for five years, was knocked out in the first round by far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen - who faced President Jacques Chirac in the run-off.

Mr Jospin quickly withdrew from public life and has maintained silence ever since.

Now his wife, philosopher Sylviane Agacinski, has lifted the veil on their private life by publishing on Friday Journal interrompu - or Interrupted Diary.

Ms Agacinski insists she is not speaking on her husband's behalf.

"He will express himself again when he decides to, and he will do it himself," she told the daily Le Monde.

Isolation

"In publishing this book, I also wanted to sketch a moral and political portrait of Lionel Jospin different from the distorted image that has been given of him," she added.

Mr Jospin is not quoted directly in the book, which gives details of his wife's own thoughts and experiences on the campaign trail.

Far right Le Pen defeated Jospin on 21 April

Ms Agacinski was the focus of much attention and was interviewed extensively as a potential first lady.

Her diary records the sense of isolation both she and her husband felt at the time.

"I have a feeling we are campaigning separately," she writes.

"I do not understand why they make him run around so much," she goes on. "He has no time to stand back and collect his thought."

Ms Agacinski is particularly scathing about what she views as media cynicism.

"Most papers these days seem to be written only to make us loathe mankind," she writes.

Her stunned diary entry for election night on 21 April reads: "I suddenly understand the silence and motionlessness of those sitting here."

Muted reactions

Ms Agacinski is a professor, feminist and author of several philosophy books.

Hollande says the diary is purely personal

In her interview with Le Monde, she reflects on Mr Jospin's continued disappointment.

"Sometimes people approach him in the street and say: 'Come back, we need you, why aren't you there?' He answers: 'On April 21, I was there. You were the ones who failed to show up'."

The book has drawn muted responses from current socialist leaders, who have played down its political significance.

"It is a personal account", party leader Fran�ois Hollande said.

Another top socialist, Henri Emmanuelli, said he did not feel "concerned" by the diary.