François Mitterrand - Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia

10/31/2015
Franois Mitterrand - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Franois Mitterrand
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"Mitterrand" redirects here. For other uses, see Mitterrand (disambiguation).

mis mit];
26 October 1916 8 January
Franois Maurice Adrien Marie Mitterrand (French: [fswa
1996) was a French statesman, who served as the President of France from 1981 until 1995. He is the longest-serving
President of France and, as leader of the Socialist Party, the first figure from the left elected President under the Fifth
Republic.
Franois Mitterrand
Reflecting family influences, Mitterrand started political life on the Catholic nationalist right. He served under the Vichy
Regime in its earlier years. Subsequently, however, he joined the Resistance, moved to the left, and held ministerial office
repeatedly under the Fourth Republic. He opposed de Gaulle's establishment of the Fifth Republic. Although at times a
politically isolated figure, Mitterrand outmanoeuvred rivals to become the left's standard bearer in every presidential
election from 1965 to 1988, except 1969. Elected President in the May 1981 presidential election, he was re-elected in
1988 and held office until 1995.
Mitterrand invited the Communist Party into his first government, a controversial move at the time. In the event, the
Communists were boxed in as junior partners and, rather than taking advantage, saw their support erode. They left the
cabinet in 1984. Early in his first term, Mitterrand followed a radical economic program, including nationalization of key
firms, but after two years, with the economy in crisis, he reversed course. His foreign and defense policies built on those
of his Gaullist predecessors. His partnership with German Chancellor Helmut Kohl advanced European integration via the
Maastricht Treaty, but he accepted German reunification only reluctantly. During his time in office he was a strong
promoter of culture and implemented a range of costly "Grands Projets". He was twice forced by the loss of a
parliamentary majority into "cohabitation governments" with conservative cabinets led, respectively, by Jacques Chirac
(198688), and douard Balladur (199395). Less than eight months after leaving office, Mitterrand died from the
prostate cancer he had successfully concealed for most of his presidency.
Beyond making the French left electable, Mitterrand presided over the rise of the Socialist Party to dominance of the left,
and the decline of the once-mighty Communist Party (as a share of the popular vote in the first presidential round, the
Communists shrank from a peak of 21.27% in 1969 to 8.66% in 1995, at the end of Mitterrand's second term, and to
1.93% in the 2007 election).
Contents
1 Family
2 Early life
3 Second World War
4 Fourth Republic
5 Fifth Republic
5.1 Opposition to de Gaulle
5.1.1 His "crossing of the desert"
5.1.2 1965 presidential election and aftermath
5.1.3 Socialist Party leader, 197181
6 Presidency (198195)
6.1 First term, 198188
6.1.1 Economic policy
6.1.2 Social policy
6.1.3 Cultural policy
6.1.4 Foreign policy
6.1.5 First Cohabitation (198688)
6.2 Second term, 198895
6.2.1 Second Cohabitation (199395)
7 Death
8 Foreign policy
8.1 East/West relations
8.2 European policy
8.3 1990 speech at La Baule
8.4 Discovery of HIV
8.5 Apology to the Huguenots
8.6 Co-Prince of Andorra
9 Prime Ministers during presidency
10 Controversies
10.1 Medical secrecy
10.2 Ptain
10.3 Urba
10.4 Wiretaps
10.5 Rwanda
10.6 Bombing of the Rainbow Warrior
10.6.1 Killing of Fernando Pereira
11 Political career
12 Honours
12.1 France
12.2 Foreign honours
13 Vexillology and heraldry
14 References
15 Further reading
16 External links
President of the French Republic

In office
21 May 1981 17 May 1995
Prime Minister Pierre Mauroy
Laurent Fabius
Jacques Chirac
Michel Rocard
dith Cresson
Pierre Brgovoy
douard Balladur
Succeeded by
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fran%C3%A7ois_Mitterrand
Jacques Chirac
Co-Prince of Andorra
In office
21 May 1981 17 May 1995
Prime Minister scar Ribas Reig
Josep Pintat-Solans
scar Ribas Reig
Marc Forn Moln
Representative Jean-Yves Caullet
Preceded by
Valry Giscard d'Estaing
Succeeded by
Jacques Chirac
First Secretary of the Socialist Party

In office
16 June 1971 24 January 1981
Preceded by
Alain Savary
Succeeded by
Lionel Jospin
Minister of Justice
In office
31 January 1956 12 June 1957
Rene Coty
President
Prime Minister Guy Mollet

Preceded by
Succeeded by
Robert Schuman
Edouard Corniglion-Molinier
Minister of the Interior
In office
19 June 1954 23 February 1955
Rene Coty
President
Prime Minister Pierre Mends-France

Preceded by
Lon Martinaud-Deplat
Succeeded by
Maurice Bourgs-Maunoury
Minister-Delegate to the Council of Europe

In office
28 June 1953 4 September 1953
President
Family
Preceded by
Vincent Auriol
Prime Minister Joseph Laniel

Preceded by
Pierre Pflimlin (1952)
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Mitterrand was born in Jarnac, Charente, and baptized Franois Maurice Adrien Marie Mitterrand, the son of
Joseph Mitterrand and Yvonne Lorrain. His family was devoutly Roman Catholic[1] and conservative. His father worked
as an engineer for la Compagnie Paris Orlans. He had three brothers, Robert, Jacques and Philippe, and four sisters,
Antoinette, Marie-Josphe, Colette and Genevive.
Mitterrand's wife, Danielle Mitterrand (ne Gouze, 19242011), came from a socialist background and worked for
various left-wing causes. They married on 24 October 1944 and had three sons: Pascal (10 June 1945 17 September
1945), Jean-Christophe, born in 1946, and Gilbert, born on 4 February 1949. He also had two children as results of
extra-marital affairs: a daughter, Mazarine (born 1974) with his mistress Anne Pingeot, and a son, Hravn Forsne (born
1988), with Swedish journalist Christina Forsne.[2] Hravn Forsne is currently running for a seat in the Swedish
Preceded by
Pierre Pflimlin (1952)
Succeeded by
Edgar Faure (1958)

Minister of State
In office
20 January 1952 28 February 1952
Vincent Auriol
President
Prime Minister Edgar Faure

Minister of Overseas France
In office
12 July 1950 15 August 1951
parliamentary election.[3][4]
Mitterrand's nephew Frdric Mitterrand is a journalist, Minister of Culture and Communications under Nicolas Sarkozy
(and a supporter of Jacques Chirac, former French President), and his wife's brother-in-law Roger Hanin is a well-known
French actor.
President
Early life
Preceded by
Paul Coste-Floret
Succeeded by
Louis Jacquinot
Further information: France in the twentieth century, French Third Republic and Mitterrand and the far
right
Mitterrand studied from 1925 to 1934 in the Collge Saint-Paul in Angoulme, where he became a member of the
Jeunesse Etudiante Chrtienne (JEC), the student organisation of Action catholique. Arriving in Paris in autumn 1934, he
then went to the cole Libre des Sciences Politiques until 1937, where he obtained his diploma in July of that year.
Mitterrand took membership for about a year in the Volontaires nationaux (National Volunteers), an organisation
related to Franois de la Rocque's far-right league, the Croix de Feu; the league had just participated in the 6 February
1934 riots which led to the fall of the second Cartel des Gauches (Left-Wing Coalition).[5]
Minister of Veterans and War Victims

In office
24 November 1947 19 July 1948
President
When Mitterrand's involvement in these conservative nationalist movements was revealed in the 1990s, he attributed his
actions to the milieu of his youth. Mitterrand furthermore had some personal and family relations with members of the
Cagoule, a far-right terrorist group in the 1930s.[6]
Preceded by
Daniel Mayer
Succeeded by
Andr Maroselli
In office
22 January 1947 21 October 1947
President
Preceded by
Max Lejeune
Succeeded by
Daniel Mayer
Born
Franois Maurice Adrien Marie

Mitterrand
26 October 1916
Jarnac, France
Died
8 January 1996 (aged 79)

Paris, France
Personal details
Political party Cross of Fire

(193436)
agnostic.[8]
Democratic and Socialist Union of the

Resistance
Second World War
(194564)
Convention of Republican Institutions
Franois Mitterrand's actions during World War II were the cause of much controversy in France in the 1980s and
1990s.
Mitterrand was at the end of his national service when the war broke out. He fought as an infantry sergeant and was
injured (ref unknown) and captured by the Germans on 14 June 1940. He was held prisoner at Stalag IXA near
Ziegenhain (today part of Schwalmstadt, a town near Kassel in Hesse). Mitterrand became involved in the social
organisation for the POWs in the camp (ref unknown). He claims this, and the influence of the people he met there, began
to change his political ideas, moving them towards the left.[9] He had two failed escape attempts in March and then
November 1941 before he finally escaped on 16 December 1941, returning to France on foot. In December 1941 he
arrived home in the unoccupied zone controlled by the French. With help from a friend (ref unknown)of his mother he got
a job as a mid-level functionary of the Vichy government, looking after the interests of POWs. This was very unusual for
an escaped prisoner, and he later claimed to have served as a spy for the Free French Forces.
Vincent Auriol
Prime Minister Robert Schuman
Mitterrand then served his conscription from 1937 to 1939 in the 23rd rgiment d'infanterie coloniale. In 1938, he
became the best friend of Georges Dayan, a Jewish socialist, whom he saved from anti-Semite aggressions by the
national-royalist movement Action franaise.[7] His friendship with Dayan caused Mitterrand to begin to question some
of his nationalist ideas. Finishing his law studies, he was sent in September 1939 to the Maginot line near Montmdy, with
the rank of Sergeant-chief (infantry sergeant). He became engaged to Marie-Louise Terrasse (future actress Catherine
Langeais) in May 1940 (but she broke it off in January 1942). Following an observation of Nazi concentration camps at
the end of World War II, Mitterrand broke from the Catholic ideology he was raised in and identified himself as an
Vincent Auriol
Prime Minister Robert Schuman
Contrary to some reports, Mitterrand never became a formal member of the Parti Social Franais (PSF) which was the
successor to the Croix de Feu and may be considered the first French right-wing mass party.[5] However, he did write
news articles in the L'Echo de Paris newspaper, which was close to the PSF. He participated in the demonstrations
against the "mtque invasion" in February 1935 and then in those against law teacher Gaston Jze, who had been
nominated as juridical counsellor of Ethiopia's Negus, in January 1936.
Vincent Auriol
Prime Minister Ren Pleven

Henri Queuille
(196471)
Socialist Party
(197196)
Spouse(s)
Danielle Gouze (m. 1944; his death 1996)
Children
Pascal
Jean-Christophe
Gilbert
Mazarine
Alma mater
University of Paris
Free School of Political Studies
Signature
Mitterrand worked from January to April 1942 for the Lgion franaise des combattants et des volontaires de la
rvolution nationale (Legion of French combatants and volunteers of the national revolution) as a civil servant on a
Franois Mitterrand Institute
Website
temporary contract. He worked under Jean-Paul Favre De Thierrens who was a spy for the British secret service. He
(http://www.mitterrand.org/index.php)
then moved to the Commissariat au reclassement des prisonniers de guerre (Service for the orientation of POWS).
During this period, Mitterrand was aware of Thierrens's activities and may have helped in his disinformation campaign. At
the same time, he published an article detailing his time as a POW in the magazine France, revue de l'tat nouveau (the magazine was published as propaganda by the Vichy
Regime).[10]
Mitterrand has been called a "Vichysto-rsistant" (an expression used by the historian Jean-Pierre Azma to describe people who supported Marshal Philippe Ptain, the head of
the Vichy Regime, before 1943, but subsequently rejected the Vichy Regime).[11]
From spring 1942, he met other escaped POWs Jean Roussel, Max Varenne, and Dr. Guy Fric, under whose influence he became involved with the resistance. In April,
Mitterrand and Fric caused a major disturbance in a public meeting held by the collaborator Georges Claude. From mid-1942, he sent false papers to POWs in Germany (ref
unknown) and on 12 June and 15 August 1942, he joined meetings at the Chteau de Montmaur which formed the base of his future network for the resistance.[12] From
September, he made contact with France libre, but clashed with Michel Cailliau, General Charles de Gaulle's nephew (and de Gaulle's candidate to head-up all POW-related
resistance organizations).[13] On 15 October 1942, Mitterrand and Marcel Barrois (a member of the resistance deported in 1944) met Marshal Philippe Ptain along with other
members of the Comit d'entraide aux prisonniers rapatris de l'Allier (Help group for repatriated POWs in the department of Allier).[14] By the end of 1942, Mitterrand met
Pierre Guillain de Bnouville, an old friend from his days with La Cagoule. Bnouville was a member of the resistance groups Combat and Noyautage des administrations
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Pierre Guillain de Bnouville, an old friend from his days with La Cagoule. Bnouville was a member of the resistance groups Combat and Noyautage des administrations
publiques (NAP).
In late 1942, the non-occupied zone was invaded by the Germans. Mitterrand left the Commissariat in January 1943, when his boss Maurice Pinot, another vichysto-rsistant, was
replaced by the collaborator Andr Masson, but he remained in charge of the centres d'entraides. In the spring of 1943, along with Gabriel Jeantet, a member of Marshal Ptain's
cabinet, and Simon Arbellot (both former members of La Cagoule), Mitterrand received the Ordre de la francisque (the honorific distinction of the Vichy Regime).
Debate rages in France as to the significance of this. When Mitterrand's Vichy past was exposed in the 1950s, he at first denied having received the Francisque (some sources say
he was designated for the award, but never received the medal because he went into hiding before the ceremony took place)[15] Jean Pierre-Bloch says that Mitterrand was
ordered to accept the medal as cover for his work in the resistance.[16] Pierre Moscovici and Jacques Attali remain skeptical of Mitterrand's beliefs at this time, accusing him of
having at best a "foot in each camp" until he was sure who the winner would be. They noted Mitterrand's friendship with Ren Bousquet and the wreaths he was said to have
placed on Ptain's tomb in later years (see below) as examples of his ambivalent attitude.[17]
Mitterrand built up a resistance network (ref unknown), composed mainly of former POWs. The POWs National Rally (Rassemblement national des prisonniers de guerre or
RNPG) was affiliated with General Henri Giraud, a former POW who had escaped from a German prison and made his way across Germany back to the Allied forces. In 1943
Giraud was contesting with General Charles de Gaulle for the leadership of the French Resistance. From the beginning of 1943, Mitterrand became involved with setting up a
powerful resistance group called the (ref unknown)Organisation de rsistance de l'arme (ORA). He obtained funding for his own RNPG network, which he set up with Pinot in
February. From this time on, Mitterrand was a member of the ORA.[18] In March, Mitterrand met Henri Frenay, who encouraged the resistance in France to support Mitterrand
over Michel Cailliau.[19] 28 May 1943, when Mitterrand met with Gaullist Philippe Dechartre, is generally taken as the date Mitterrand split with Vichy.[20]
During 1943, the RNPG gradually changed from providing false papers to information-gathering for France libre. Pierre de Bnouville said, " Mitterrand created a true spy network
in the POW camps which gave us information, often decisive, about what was going on behind the German borders."[21] On 10 July Mitterrand and Piatzook (a militant communist)
interrupted a public meeting in the Salle Wagram in Paris. The meeting was about allowing French POWs to go home if they were replaced by young French men forced to go and
work in Germany (in French this was called "la relve"). When Andr Masson began to talk about "la trahison des gaullistes" (the Gaullist treason), Mitterrand stood up in the
audience and shouted him down, saying Masson had no right to talk on behalf of POWs and calling "la relve" a "con" (i.e., something stupid). Mitterrand avoided arrest as
Piatzook covered his escape.[22]
In November 1943 the Sicherheitsdienst (SD) raided a flat in Vichy, where they hoped to arrest Franois Morland, a member of the resistance.[23] "Morland" was Mitterrand's
cover name. He also used Purgon, Monnier, Laroche, Captain Franois, Arnaud et Albre as cover names. The man they arrested was Pol Pilven, a member of the resistance who
was to survive the war in a concentration camp. Mitterrand was in Paris at the time.
Warned by his friends, he escaped to London aboard a Lysander plane on 15 November 1943 (piloted by then-Squadron Leader Lewis Hodges). From there he went to Algiers,
where he met de Gaulle, by then the uncontested leader of the Free French. The two men clashed. Mitterrand refused to merge his group with other POW movements if de
Gaulle's nephew Cailliau was to be the leader.[24] Under the influence of Henri Frenay, de Gaulle finally agreed to merge his nephew's network and the RNPG with Mitterrand in
charge.[25]
Mitterrand returned to France by boat via England. In Paris, the three Resistance groups made up of POWs (Communists, Gaullists, RNPG) finally merged as the POWs and
Deportees National Movement (Mouvement national des prisonniers de guerre et dports or MNPGD) and Mitterrand took the lead. In his memoirs, he says that he had
started this organisation while he was still officially working for the Vichy Regime. From 27 November 1943 Mitterrand ran the Bureau central de renseignements et d'action.[26][27]
In December 1943 Mitterrand ordered the execution of Henri Marlin (who was about to order attacks on the "Maquis") by Jacques Paris and Jean Munier, who later hid out with
Mitterrand's father. After a second visit to London in February 1944, Mitterrand took part in the liberation of Paris. When de Gaulle entered Paris following the Liberation, he was
introduced to various men who were to be part of the provisional government. Among them was Mitterrand, as secretary general of POWs. When they came face to face, de
Gaulle is said to have muttered: "You again!" He dismissed Mitterrand 2 weeks later.
In October 1944 Mitterrand and Jacques Foccart developed a plan to liberate the POW and concentration camps. This was called operation Viacarage. On the orders of de
Gaulle, in April 1945 Mitterrand accompanied General Lewis as the French representative at the liberation of the camps at Kaufering and Dachau. By chance Mitterrand
discovered his friend and member of his network, Robert Antelme, suffering from typhus. Antelme was restricted to the camp to prevent the spread of disease, but Mitterrand
arranged for his "escape" and sent him back to France for treatment.[28][29]
Fourth Republic
Further information: French Fourth Republic
After the war Mitterrand quickly moved back into politics. At the June 1946 legislative election, he led the list of the Rally of the Republican Lefts (Rassemblement des gauches
rpublicaines or RGR) in the Western suburb of Paris, but he was not elected. The RGR was an electoral entity composed of the Radical Party, the centrist Democratic and
Socialist Union of the Resistance (Union dmocratique et socialiste de la Rsistance or UDSR) and several conservative groupings. It opposed the policy of the "Three-parties
alliance" (Communists, Socialists and Christian Democrats).
In the November 1946 legislative election, he succeeded in winning a seat as deputy from the Nivre dpartement. To be elected, he had to win a seat at the expense of the
French Communist Party (PCF). As leader of the RGR list, he led a very anti-communist campaign. He became a member of the UDSR party. In January 1947, he joined the
cabinet as War Veterans Minister. He held various offices in the Fourth Republic as a Deputy and as a Minister (holding eleven different portfolios in total), including as a mayor of
Chteau-Chinon from 1959 to 1981.
In May 1948 Mitterrand participated in the Congress of The Hague, together with Konrad Adenauer, Winston Churchill, Harold Macmillan, Paul-Henri Spaak, Albert Copp and
Altiero Spinelli. It originated the European Movement.
As Overseas Minister (19501951), he opposed the colonial lobby to propose a reform program. He connected with the left when he resigned from the cabinet after the arrest of
Morocco's sultan (1953). As leader of the progressive wing of the UDSR, he took the head of the party in 1953, replacing the conservative Ren Pleven.
In June 1953 Mitterrand attended the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. Seated next to the elderly Princess Marie Bonaparte, he reported having spent much of the ceremony being
psychoanalyzed by her.
As Interior Minister in Pierre Mends-France's cabinet (19541955), Mitterrand had to direct the response to the Algerian War of Independence. He claimed: "Algeria is France."
He was suspected of being the informer of the Communist Party in the cabinet. This rumor was spread by the former Paris police prefect, who had been dismissed by him. The
suspicions were dismissed by subsequent investigations.
The UDSR joined the Republican Front, a center-left coalition, which won the 1956 legislative election. As Justice Minister (19561957), Mitterrand allowed the expansion of
martial law in the Algerian conflict. Unlike other ministers (including Mends-France), who criticized the repressive policy in Algeria, he remained in Guy Mollet's cabinet until its
end. As Minister of Justice, he had a role in 45 executions of the Algerian natives, recommending President Rene Coty to reject clemency in 80% of the cases, an action he later
came to regret.[30]
As Minister of Justice he was an official representative of France during the wedding of Prince of Monaco Rainier III and actress Grace Kelly. Under the Fourth Republic, he was
representative of a generation of young ambitious politicians. He appeared as a possible future Prime Minister.
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representative of a generation of young ambitious politicians. He appeared as a possible future Prime Minister.
Fifth Republic
Further information: French Fifth Republic
Opposition to de Gaulle
His "crossing of the desert"
In 1958, Mitterrand was one of the few to object to the nomination of Charles de Gaulle as head of government, and to de Gaulle's plan for a French Fifth Republic. He justified
his opposition by the circumstances of de Gaulle's comeback: the 13 May 1958 quasi-putsch and military pressure. In September 1958, determinedly opposed to Charles de
Gaulle, Mitterrand made an appeal to vote "no" in the referendum over the Constitution, which was nevertheless adopted on 4 October 1958. This defeated coalition of the "No"
was composed of the PCF and some left-wing republican politicians (such as Mends-France and Mitterrand).
This attitude may have been a factor in Mitterrand's losing his seat in the 1958 elections, beginning a long "crossing of the desert" (this term is usually
applied to de Gaulle's decline in influence for a similar period). Indeed, in the second round of the legislative election, Mitterrand was supported by
the Communists but the French Section of the Workers' International (SFIO) refused to withdraw its candidate. This division caused the election of
the Gaullist candidate. One year later, he was elected to represent Nivre in the Senate, where he was part of the Group of the Democratic Left. At
the same time, he was not admitted to the ranks of the Unified Socialist Party (Parti socialiste unifi, PSU) which was created by Mends-France,
former internal opponents of Mollet and reform-minded former members of the Communist Party. The PSU leaders justified their decision by
referring to his non-resignation from Mollet's cabinet and by his past in Vichy.
Also in that same year, on the Avenue de l'Observatoire in Paris, Mitterrand claimed to have escaped an assassin's bullet by diving behind a hedge,
in what became known as the Observatory Affair.[31] The incident brought him a great deal of publicity, initially boosting his political ambitions.
Some of his critics claimed, however, that he had staged the incident himself, resulting in a backlash against Mitterrand. He later said he had earlier
been warned by right-wing deputy Pesquet that he was the target of an Algrie franaise death squad and accused Prime Minister Michel Debr of
Franois Mitterrand in
being its instigator. Before his death, Pesquet claimed that Mitterrand had set up a fake attempt on his life. Prosecution was initiated against
1959
Mitterrand but was later dropped. Nonetheless, the Observatory Affair cast a lasting shadow over Mitterrand's reputation. Years later in 1965,
when Mitterrand emerged as the challenger to de Gaulle in the second round of the presidential elections, de Gaulle was urged by an aide to use the
Observatory Affair to discredit his opponent. "No, and don't insist" was the General's response, "It would be wrong to demean the office of the Presidency, since one day he
[Mitterrand] may have the job."[32]
Mitterrand visited China in 1961, during the worst of the Great Chinese Famine, but denied the existence of starvation.[33]
In the 1962 election, Mitterrand regained his seat in the National Assembly with the support of the PCF and the SFIO. Practicing left unity in Nivre, he advocated the rallying of
left-wing forces at the national level, including the PCF, in order to challenge Gaullist domination. Two years later, he became the president (chairman) of the General Council of
Nivre. While the opposition to De Gaulle organized in clubs, he founded his own group, the Convention of Republican Institutions (Convention des institutions rpublicaines or
CIR). He reinforced his position as a left-wing opponent to Charles de Gaulle in publishing Le Coup d'tat permanent (The permanent coup, 1964), which criticized de Gaulle's
personal power, the weaknesses of Parliament and of the government, the President's exclusive control of foreign affairs, and defence, etc.
1965 presidential election and aftermath
In 1965, Mitterrand was the first left-wing politician who saw the presidential election by universal suffrage as a way to defeat the opposition leadership. Not a member of any
specific political party, his candidacy for presidency was accepted by all left-wing parties (the French Section of the Workers' International (SFIO), French Communist Party
(PCF), Radical-Socialist Party (PR) and Unified Socialist Party (PSU)). He ended the cordon sanitaire of the PCF which the party had been subject to since 1947. For the SFIO
leader Guy Mollet, Mitterrand's candidacy prevented Gaston Defferre, his rival in the SFIO, from running for the presidency. Furthermore, Mitterrand was a lone figure, so he did
not appear as a danger to the left-wing parties' staff members.
De Gaulle was expected to win in the first round, but Mitterrand received 31.7% of the vote, denying De Gaulle a first-round victory. Mitterrand was supported in the second
round by the left and other anti-Gaullists: centrist Jean Monnet, moderate conservative Paul Reynaud and Jean-Louis Tixier-Vignancour, an extreme right-winger and the lawyer
who had defended Raoul Salan, one of the four generals who had organized the 1961 Algiers putsch during the Algerian War.
Mitterrand received 44.8% of votes in the second round and de Gaulle, with the majority, was thus elected for another term, but this defeat was regarded as honourable, for no
one was really expected to defeat de Gaulle. Mitterrand took the lead of a centre-left alliance: the Federation of the Democratic and Socialist Left (Fdration de la gauche
dmocrate et socialiste or FGDS). It was composed of the SFIO, the Radicals and several left-wing republican clubs (such the CIR of Mitterrand).
In the legislative election of March 1967, the system where all candidates who failed to pass a 10% threshold in the first round were eliminated from the second round favoured the
pro-Gaullist majority, which faced a split opposition (PCF, FGDS and centrists of Jacques Duhamel). Nevertheless, the parties of the left managed to gain 63 seats more than
previously for a total of 194. The Communists remained the largest left-wing group with 22.5% of votes. The governing coalition won with its majority reduced by only one seat
(247 seats out of 487).
In Paris, the Left (FGDS, PSU, PCF) managed to win more votes in the first round than the two governing parties (46% against 42.6%) while the Democratic Centre of Duhamel
got 7% of votes. But with 38% of votes, de Gaulle's Union for the Fifth Republic remained the leading French party.[34]
During the May 1968 governmental crisis, Mitterrand held a press conference to announce his candidacy if a new presidential election was held. But after the Gaullist
demonstration on the Champs-Elyses, de Gaulle dissolved the Assembly and called for a legislative election instead. In this election, the right wing won its largest majority since the
Bloc National in 1919.
Mitterrand was accused of being responsible for this huge legislative defeat and the FGDS split. In 1969, Mitterrand could not run for the Presidency: Guy Mollet refused to give
him the support of the SFIO. The left wing was eliminated in the first round, with the Socialist candidate Gaston Defferre winning a humiliating 5.1 percent of the total vote. Georges
Pompidou faced the centrist Alain Poher in the second round.
Socialist Party leader, 197181
After the FGDS's implosion, Mitterrand turned to the Socialist Party (Parti socialiste or "PS"). In June 1971, at the time of the Epinay Congress, the CIR joined the "PS", which
had replaced the SFIO in 1969. The executive of the "PS" was then dominated by Guy Mollet's supporters. They proposed an "ideological dialogue" with the Communists. For
Mitterrand, an electoral alliance was necessary to rise to power. With this project, Mitterrand obtained the support of all the internal opponents to Mollet's faction and he was
elected as the first secretary of the "PS".
In June 1972, Mitterrand signed the Common Programme of Government with the Communist Georges Marchais and the Left Radical Robert Fabre. With this programme, he led
the 1973 legislative campaign of the "Union of the Left".
At the 1974 presidential election, Mitterrand received 43.2% of the vote in the first round, as the common candidate of the left wing. He next faced Valry Giscard d'Estaing in the
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At the 1974 presidential election, Mitterrand received 43.2% of the vote in the first round, as the common candidate of the left wing. He next faced Valry Giscard d'Estaing in the
second round. During the national TV debate, Giscard d'Estaing criticized him as being "a man of the past", due to his long political career. Mitterrand was defeated in a near tie by
Giscard d'Estaing, Mitterrand receiving 49.19% and Giscard 50.81%.
In 1977, the Communist and Socialist parties failed to update the Common Programme, then lost the 1978 legislative election. While the Socialists took the leading position on
the left, by obtaining more votes than the Communists for the first time since 1936, the leadership of Mitterrand was challenged by an internal opposition led by Michel Rocard who
criticized the programme of the PS as being "archaic" and "unrealistic". The polls indicated Rocard was more popular than Mitterrand. Nevertheless, Mitterrand won the vote at the
Party's Metz Congress (1979) and Rocard renounced his candidacy for the 1981 presidential election.
For his third candidacy for presidency, Mitterrand was not supported by the PCF but only by the PS. He projected a reassuring image with the slogan "the quiet force". He
campaigned for "another politics", based on the 110 Propositions for France Socialist program,[35] and denounced the performance of the incumbent president. Furthermore, he
benefited from the conflict in the right-wing majority. He obtained 25.85% of votes in the first round (against 15% for the PCF candidate Georges Marchais), then defeated
President Giscard d'Estaing in the second round, with 51.76%. He became the first left-wing politician elected President of France by universal suffrage.
Presidency (198195)
First term, 198188
In the presidential election of 10 May 1981, Mitterrand became the first socialist President of the Fifth Republic, and his government became the
first left-wing government in 23 years. He named Pierre Mauroy as Prime Minister and organised a new legislative election. The Socialists
obtained an absolute parliamentary majority, and four Communists joined the cabinet.
Economic policy
The beginning of his first term was marked by a left-wing economic policy based on the 110 Propositions for France and the 1972 Common
Programme between the Socialist Party, the Communist Party and the Left Radical Party. This included several nationalizations, a 10% increase
of the SMIC (minimum wage), a 39-hour work week, 5 weeks holiday per year, the creation of the solidarity tax on wealth, an increase in social
benefits, and the extension of workers' rights to consultation and information about their employers (through the Auroux Act). The objective was
to boost economic demand and thus economic activity (Keynesianism). However, unemployment continued to grow[citation needed] and the franc
was devalued three times.
Old age pensions were raised by 300 francs per month to 1,700 francs for a single person and to 3,700 francs for a couple, while health
insurance benefits were made more widely available to unemployed persons and part-time employees. Housing allocations for the low-paid were
raised by 25% in 1981, and in the two years following May 1981 family allowances were increased by 44% for families with 3 children and by
81% for families with 2 children. In 1981, the purchasing power of social transfers went up by 4.5% and by 7.6% in 1982. In addition, the
minimum wage (which affected 1.7 million employees) was increased by 15% in real terms between May 1981 and December 1982.[36]
Mitterrand with U.S.

President Ronald Reagan,
1981
Major efforts were made to improve access to housing and health care, while the government also attempted to tackle working-class underachievement in schools by reinforcing the comprehensive system, modernizing the curriculum and reducing streaming. As a means of increasing political participation, the
government increased the financial allowances of local politicians, who also became entitled to paid leave from their jobs to attend courses in public administration. Allowances for
the handicapped were improved, while improvements were also made in the pay and conditions for those serving in the army. A decree of January 1982 provided for solidarity
contracts whereby firms would be subsidized for introducing part-time work or early retirement if they also allowed the creation of new jobs, while a decree of March 1982
provided employees with the right to retire at the age of 60 on 50% of average earnings during their 10 best years of employment. In 1983, legislation was passed to encourage
greater equality in the private sector. Firms now had to make an annual report on the training opportunities and employment conditions for women and present a statistical analysis
of their position in the firm, whilst the works committee had to ensure that equality promoting measures are taken.[37] In addition, a new benefit was introduced for unemployed
workers who had exhausted their eligibility for unemployment insurance.[38] In December 1982, a law was passed that restored to workers the right to elect administrators to the
social security funds, a practice that Charles De Gaulle had broken back in 1967.[39]
In what concerns new French Technologies initiated by his predecessor Valry Giscard d'Estaing, Mitterrand continued to push them: the TGV high speed train and the Minitel, a
pre-World Wide Web interactive network similar to the web.[40] The Minitel and the TGV connection Paris-Lyon were inaugurated only a few weeks after the election. In
addition, Government grants and loans for capital investment for modernisation were significantly increased.[41]
Mitterrand passed the first decentralization laws, the Defferre Act.
After two years in office, Mitterrand made a substantial u-turn in economic policies, with the March 1983 adoption of the so-called "tournant de la rigueur" (austerity turn). Priority
was given to the struggle against inflation in order to remain competitive in the European Monetary System. Although there were two periods of mild economic reflation (first from
1984 to 1986 and again from 1988 to 1990), monetary and fiscal restraint was the essential policy orientation of Mitterrand's presidency from 1983 onwards.[42] Nevertheless,
compared to the OECD average, fiscal policy in France remained relatively expansionary during the course of the two Mitterrand presidencies.[43]
Social policy
In 1983, all members of the general pension scheme obtained the right to a full pension at the age of 60 payable at a rate of half the reference wage in return for 37.5 years
contribution. The government agreed at the same time to improve the pension position of some public sector employees and to increase the real value of the minimum pension. In
addition, later negotiations brought retirement at 60 years into the occupational schemes although the financial terms for doing so could only be agreed for a 7-year period. A
comparison between 1981 and 1986 showed that the minimum state pension had increased by 64% for a couple and by 81% for one person. During that same period, family
allowances had increased by 71% for three children and by 112% for two children. In addition, the single-parent allowance for mothers or fathers with one child had been
increased by 103% and for two or more children by 52% for each child
In order to mark the importance of the problems of the elderly, the government appointed a Secretary of State (attached to the Ministry of Social Affairs and National Solidarity) to
carry special responsibility for them, and in an effort to try to relate policy to the felt needs of the elderly, it set up a central advisory committee to examine social policy from their
point of view and carry out special studies and enquiries. This body became especially concerned with monitoring the attempts at coordination and encouraging policies which were
aimed at helping he elderly stay at home instead of entering residential care.[37]
In the field of health care, some prescription charges were abolished, hospital administration was decentralised, workers rights in the health service were reaffirmed, and equipment
was provided for researchers.[44] From 1983 onwards, wage-earners who had contributed to a pension fund for 37.5 years became eligible to retire on a full pension. This right
was extended to the self-employed in 1984 and to farmers in 1986. People who had retired at the age of 60 were, however, not initially eligible for reductions on public transport
until they reached the age of 65. The qualifying age for these reductions was, however, reduced to 62 in 1985.[45] A number of illegal immigrants had their position regularized
under the Socialists and the conditions pertaining to residence and work permits were eased. Educational programmes were implemented to help immigrant communities, while
immigrants were allowed the right to free association. The Socialist government also opened up talks with the authorities in some of the main countries of origin, easing nationality
rules in the public sector, associating representatives of migrant groups with public authority work, and established an Immigrants Council in 1984.
Although the income limit for allowances varied according to the position of the child in the family and the number of dependent children, these ceilings were made more favourable
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Although the income limit for allowances varied according to the position of the child in the family and the number of dependent children, these ceilings were made more favourable
in cases where both parents were working or where a single parent was in charge and were linked to changes in wage levels. Those taking parental leave to care for three or more
children (provided that they fulfilled the rules for eligibility) also received certain benefits in kind, such as a non-taxable, non-means-tested benefit and priority on vocational training
courses. A new boost was also given to research into family problems including an interest in the effects of changing family structures, of womens employment and the impact of
local social policies on family life.[37] In addition, while a law on equal opportunities in employment was passed in July 1983 which prohibited all forms of unequal treatment
regardless of the circumstances, together with providing for positive action plans to be established in major companies. In January 1984, a decree was made granting state aid to
companies which implemented equality plans for staff.[46] That same year, a law was passed that gave the regional Caissess des Allocations Familiales the task of collecting unpaid
alimony, initially for lone parents and subsequently for remarried or cohabiting mothers.[47]
In the field of education, more resources were devoted to the educational system, with the education budgets of 1982, 1983, and 1984 increased by approximately 4% to 6% per
year above the rate of inflation. From 1981 to 1983, the corps of teachers was increased by 30,000.[48] Authorization was restored for a number of advanced undergraduate and
graduate programmes which the previous centre-right minister Saunier-Seite had rejected on grounds of economy and "rationalization" of resources.[49] Numerous initiatives were
carried out such as the teaching of civics, the reintroduction of the teaching of French history and geography at the primary level, the introduction of new professional degrees, a
partnership between schools and enterprises, and the introduction of computers in classrooms. Priority areas were set up in 1981 as part of a systematic effort to combat
underachievement in schools, while technical education was encouraged. In addition, nursery education was expanded,[50] while efforts by the Socialists to promote joint research
between industry and the research agencies increased the number of such contracts by a half each year between 1982 and 1985, with a 29% increase in joint patents.[51] The
baccalaurat professionnel, introduced in 1985, enabled holders of a Brevet d'tudes professionnelles (or in some cases of a Certificat daptitude professionnelle) to continue for
another two years and study for the baccalaurat.[52]
Mitterrand abrogated the death penalty as soon as he took office (via the Badinter Act), as well as the "anti-casseurs Act" which instituted collective responsibility for acts of
violence during demonstrations. He also dissolved the Cour de sret, a special high court, and enacted a massive regularization of illegal immigrants. Tighter regulations on the
powers of police to stop, search and arrest were introduced, and the "loi securite et liberte" (a controversial public order act) was repealed. In addition, the legal aid system was
improved.[53]
In 1984, a law was passed to ensure that divorced women who were not in receipt of maintenance would be provided with assistance in recovering the shortfall in their income
from their former husband. By 1986, particular attention was being focused on assisting women in single-parent families to get back into employment, in recognition of the growing
problems associated with extra-marital births and marital breakdown. Parental leave was extended to firms with 100 employees in 1981 (previously, parental leave provision had
been made in 1977 for firms employing at least 200 employees) and subsequently to all employees in 1984. From 1984 onwards, married women were obliged to sign tax returns,
men and women were provided with equal rights in managing their common property and that of their children, and in 1985 they became responsible for each others debts.
Childcare facilities were also expanded, with the number of places in crches rising steadily between 1981 and 1986.[45] In addition, the minimum wage was significantly increased.
From 1981 to 1984, the SMIC rose by 125%, while prices went up by only 75% during that same period.[54] Various maesures were also introduced to mitigate the effects of
rising unemployment. Between 1981 and 1986, there had been just over 800,000 young people placed on special work schemes, 800,000 early retirements, 200,000 enterprise
allowance successes, and 30,000 retrained workers from declining industrial sectors.[37]
Cultural policy
With respect to cultural policies, grants were allocated to non-profit associations and community cultural initiatives,[55] Mitterrand liberalized the media, created the CSA media
regulation agency, and authorized pirate radio and the first private TV (Canal+), giving rise to the private broadcasting sector.
In terms of the theatre, some transfer of resources was made from the subsidy of the national theatres to the support for theatre companies which did not necessarily have an
institutional home. A significant investment was made in music education with the creation of 5 new music schools in the departements and the revamping of the Conservatoire
National de la Musique at Lyon, while the range and capacity of performance facilities in Paris was considerably increased, with the Cite Musicale de la Villette and the Opera de
la Bastille allowing for specialist performance in a way that was lacking in Paris previously, and a 2,000 seat concert hall called le Zenith, which was designed primarily for rock
music concerts but adapted for all uses.
The Socialists continued the policies of their predecessors with the Grand Louvre project and the opening of the Picasso Museum at the Hotel Sale, while the museum budget was
quadrupled and particular sums were set aside for the first time for large regional projects including the establishment of a number of new museums in the provinces such as the
Ecomuseum at Chartres and the Museum of Prehistory at Carnac. A fonds regional des Acquisitions was established to assist provincial museums in the purchase of works of art,
while the state actively continued an existing policy of encouraging bequests in lieu of death duties.
Libraries and publishing benefited from new thinking and an injection of funds, while aid to authors and publishers was restructured and book prices were fixed once again, with the
objective being to assist smaller publishing houses and specialist bookshops. The network of regional lending libraries was significantly reinforced, while financial assistance was
provided for the export of French books. In addition, archaeology, ethnography and historical buildings and monuments all benefited from the general increase in resources.[37]
Foreign policy
In terms of foreign policy, Mitterrand did not significantly deviate from his predecessors and he continued nuclear weapons testing in the South Pacific in spite of protests from
various peace and environmentalist organizations. In 1985, French agents sunk the Greenpeace-owned ex-trawler Rainbow Warrior which the group had used in demonstrations
against nuclear tests, whaling, and seal hunting. One Greenpeace member was killed, and when news broke of the event, a major scandal erupted that led to the resignation of
Defense Minister Charles Hernu. France subsequently paid reparations of 1.8 million USD to Greenpeace.
France also retained her independent stance under Mitterrand by staying outside of NATO and continued an active involvement in African affairs, the French military and Foreign
Legion frequently intervening on behalf of various African governments and training local forces.
The Left lost the 1983 municipal elections and the 1984 European Parliament election. At the same time, the Savary Bill, to limit the financing of private schools by local
communities, caused a political crisis. It was abandoned and Mauroy resigned in July 1984. Laurent Fabius succeeded him, and the Communists left the cabinet.
First Cohabitation (198688)
Before the 1986 legislative campaign, proportional representation was instituted in accordance with the 110 Propositions. It did not prevent, however, the victory of the Rally for
the Republic/Union for French Democracy (RPR/UDF) coalition. Mitterrand thus named the RPR leader Jacques Chirac as Prime Minister. This period of government, with a
President and a Prime Minister who came from two opposite coalitions, was the first time that such a combination had occurred under the Fifth Republic, and came to be known as
"Cohabitation".[56]
Chirac mostly handled domestic policy while Mitterrand concentrated on his "reserved domain" of foreign affairs and defence. However, several conflicts erupted between the two.
In one example, Mitterrand refused to sign executive decrees of liberalization, obliging Chirac to pass the measures through parliament instead. Mitterrand also reportedly gave
covert support to some social movements, notably the student revolt against the university reform (Devaquet Bill). Benefiting from the difficulties of Chirac's cabinet, the President's
popularity increased.
With the polls running in his favor, Mitterrand announced his candidacy in the 1988 presidential election. He proposed a moderate programme (promising "neither nationalisations
nor liberalisation") and advocated a "united France," and laid out his policy priorities in his "Letter to the French People."[57] He obtained 34% of the votes in the first round, then
faced Chirac in the second, and was re-elected with 54% of the votes. Mitterrand thus became the first President to be elected twice by universal suffrage.
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faced Chirac in the second, and was re-elected with 54% of the votes. Mitterrand thus became the first President to be elected twice by universal suffrage.
Second term, 198895

After his re-election, he named Michel Rocard as Prime Minister, in spite of their poor relations. Rocard led the moderate wing of the PS and he was the most popular of the
Socialist politicians. Mitterrand decided to organize a new legislative election. The PS obtained a relative parliamentary majority. Four centre-right politicians joined the cabinet.
The second term was marked by the creation of the Insertion Minimum Revenue (RMI), which ensured a minimum level of income to those deprived of any other form of income;
the restoring of the solidarity tax on wealth, which had been abolished by Chirac's cabinet; the institution of the Generalized social tax; the extension of parental leave up to the
child's third birthday;[45] the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy; the 1990 Gayssot Act on hate speech and Holocaust denial; the Besson law of 1990;[58] the Mermaz Law
of 1989;,[59] the introduction of a private childcare allowance;[60] the Urban Orientation Law of 1991;[61] the Arpaillange Act on the financing of political parties; the reform of the
penal code; the Matignon Agreements concerning New Caledonia; the Evin Act on smoking in public places; the extension of the age limit for family allowances to 18 years in
1990;[45][45][62] and the 1989 Education Act which, amongst other measures, obliged local authorities to educate all children with disabilities.[63] Several large architectural works
were pursued, in what would become known as the Grands Projets of Franois Mitterrand with the building of the Louvre Pyramid, the Channel Tunnel, the Grande Arche at La
Dfense, the Bastille Opera, the Finance Ministry in Bercy, and the National Library of France. On 16 February 1993, President Mitterrand inaugurated in Frjus a memorial to
the wars in Indochina.
But the second term was also marked by rivalries within the PS and the split of the Mitterrandist group (at the Rennes Congress, where supporters of Laurent Fabius and Lionel
Jospin clashed bitterly for control of the party), the scandals about the financing of the party, the contaminated blood scandal which implicated Laurent Fabius and former ministers
Georgina Dufoix and Emond Herv, and the Elyse wiretaps affairs.
Second Cohabitation (199395)
Disappointed with Rocard's apparent failure to enact the Socialists' programme, Mitterrand dismissed Rocard in 1991 and appointed dith Cresson to replace him. She was the
first woman to become Prime Minister in France, but proved a costly mistake due to her tendency for making acerbic and racist public remarks. After the Socialists experienced
heavy losses in the 1992 regional elections, Cresson resigned from office. Her successor Pierre Brgovoy promised to fight unemployment and corruption but he could not
prevent the catastrophic defeat of the left in the 1993 legislative election. The Socialist Party suffered a crushing defeat with the right-wing parties winning 485 seats to the left's 92.
He killed himself on 1 May 1993.
Mitterrand named the former RPR Finance Minister Edouard Balladur as Prime Minister. The second "cohabitation" was less contentious than the first, because the two men knew
they were not rivals for the next presidential election. By this point, Mitterrand was nearly 80 years old and suffering from cancer in addition to the shock of his friend Franois de
Grossouvre's suicide. His second and last term ended after the 1995 presidential election in May 1995 with the election of Jacques Chirac. Socialist candidate Lionel Jospin lost
the presidential election.
Overall, as President, Mitterrand maintained the "basic characteristic of a strong welfare base underpinned by a strong state." A United Nations Human Development report
concluded that, from 1979 to 1989, France was the only country in the OECD (apart from Portugal) in which income inequalities did not get worse.[64] During his second term as
president, however, the gap between rich and poor widened in France,[65] with both unemployment and poverty rising in the awake of the economic recession of 19911993.[66]
Death
Mitterrand died in Paris on 8 January 1996 at the age of 79 from prostate cancer, a condition he and his doctors had concealed for most of his presidency (see section on Medical
Secrecy below).[67] A few days before his death, he was joined by family members and close friends for a "last meal" that attracted controversy because, in addition to other
gourmet dishes, it included the serving of roast ortolan bunting, a small wild songbird that is a protected species whose sale is (and was at the time) illegal in France.[68]
Foreign policy
Main article: Foreign policy of Franois Mitterrand
East/West relations
Mitterrand supported closer European collaboration and the preservation of France's special relationship with its former colonies, which he feared were falling under "Anglo-Saxon
influence." His drive to preserve French power in Africa led to controversies concerning Paris' role during the Rwandan Genocide.[69] Despite Mitterrand's left-wing affiliations, the
1980s saw France becoming more distant from the USSR, especially following events such as the expulsion of 47 Soviet diplomats and their families from the country in 1982 after
they were accused of large-scale industrial and military espionage. Mitterrand also sharply criticized the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan as well as the country's nuclear weapons
buildup. When Mitterrand visited the USSR in November 1988, the Soviet media claimed to be 'leaving aside the virtually wasted decade and the loss of the Soviet-French 'special
relationship' of the Gaullist era'.
Nevertheless, Mitterrand was worried by the rapidity of the Eastern bloc's collapse. He was opposed to German reunification but came to see it as unavoidable.[70] He was
opposed to the swift recognition of Croatia and Slovenia, which he thought would lead to the violent implosion of Yugoslavia.
France participated in the Gulf War (19901991) with the U.N. coalition.
European policy
His major achievements came internationally, especially in the European Economic Community. He initially opposed further membership fearing the Community was not ready and
it would water it down to a free trade area.[71]
He supported the enlargement of the Community to include Spain and Portugal (which both joined in January 1986). In February 1986 he helped the Single European Act come
into effect. He worked well with Helmut Kohl and improved Franco-German relations significantly. Together they fathered the Maastricht Treaty, which was signed on 7 February
1992. It was ratified by referendum, approved by just over 51% of the voters.
British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was against a German reunification[72] and also against the then discussed Maastricht Treaty. When Helmut Kohl, then German
Chancellor, asked Mitterrand to agree to reunification (France was one of the four Allies who had to agree to the Two Plus Four-treaty), Mitterrand told Kohl he accepted it only
in the event Germany would abandon the Deutsche Mark and adopt the Euro. Kohl accepted this package deal (even without talking to Karl Otto Phl, then President of the
Bundesbank).[73][74]
1990 speech at La Baule

Responding to a democratic movement in Africa after the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall, he made his La Baule speech in June 1990 which tied development aid to democratic efforts
from former French colonies, and during which he opposed the devaluation of the CFA Franc. Seeing an "East wind" blowing in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, he
stated that a "Southern wind" was also blowing in Africa, and that state leaders had to respond to the populations' wishes and aspirations by a "democratic opening", which
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stated that a "Southern wind" was also blowing in Africa, and that state leaders had to respond to the populations' wishes and aspirations by a "democratic opening", which
included a representative system, free elections, multipartyism, freedom of the press, an independent judiciary, and abolition of censorship. Claiming that France was the country
making the most important effort concerning development aid, he announced that the least developed countries (LDCs) would henceforth receive only grants from France, as
opposed to loans (in order to combat the massive increase of Third World debt during the 1980s). He likewise limited the interest rate to 5% on French loans to intermediateincome countries (that is, Ivory Coast, Congo, Cameroon and Gabon).
He also criticized interventionism in sovereign matters, which was according to him only another form of "colonialism". However, according to Mitterrand, this did not imply
lessened concern on the part of Paris for its former colonies. Mitterrand thus continued with the African policy of de Gaulle inaugurated in 1960, which followed the relative failure
of the 1958 creation of the French Community. All in all, Mitterrand's La Baule speech, which marked a relative turning point in France's policy concerning its former colonies, has
been compared with the 1956 loi-cadre Defferre which was responding to anti-colonialist feelings.[75]
African heads of state themselves reacted to Mitterrand's speech at most with indifference. Omar Bongo, President of Gabon, declared that he would rather have "events counsel
him;" Abdou Diouf, President of Senegal, said that, according to him, the best solution was a "strong government" and a "good faith opposition;" the President of Chad, Hissne
Habr (nicknamed the "African Pinochet") claimed that it was contradictory to demand that African states should simultaneously carry on a "democratic policy" and "social and
economic policies which limited their sovereignty", in a clear allusion to the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank's "structural adjustment programs". Hassan II, the king
of Morocco, said for his part that "Africa was too open to the world to remain indifferent to what was happening around it", but that Western countries should "help young
democracies open out, without putting a knife under their throat, without a brutal transition to multipartyism."[76]
All in all, the La Baule speech has been said to be on one hand "one of the foundations of political renewal in Africa French speaking area", and on the other hand "cooperation
with France", this despite "incoherence and inconsistency, like any public policy".[77]
Discovery of HIV
Controversy surrounding the discovery of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) was intense after American researcher Robert Gallo and French scientist Luc Montagnier
both claimed to have discovered it. The two scientists had given the new virus different names. The controversy was eventually settled by an agreement (helped along by the
mediation of Dr Jonas Salk) between President Ronald Reagan and Mitterrand which gave equal credit to both men and their teams.
Apology to the Huguenots

In October 1985, to commemorate the tricentenary of the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, Mitterrand gave a formal apology to the descendents of Huguenots around the
world.[78] At the same time, a special postage stamp was released in their honour. The stamp states that France is the home of the Huguenots ("Accueil des Huguenots"). Hence
their rights were finally recognised.
On 2 February 1993, in his capacity as co-prince of Andorra, Mitterrand and Joan Mart Alanis, who was Bishop of Urgell and therefore Andorra's other co-prince, signed
Andorra's new constitution, which was later approved by referendum in the principality.
Prime Ministers during presidency

As of 2015, Mitterrand has had the most prime ministers during the regime of the 5th Republic.
Prime minister from
to
Notes
Pierre Mauroy
1981 1984
Laurent Fabius
1984 1986 The youngest PM since Decazes (39 years old)
Jacques Chirac
1986 1988 First cohabitation of the Fifth Republic
Michel Rocard
1988 1991
dith Cresson
1991 1992 First female prime minister
Pierre Brgovoy 1992 1993

douard Balladur 1993 1995 Second Cohabitation
Controversies
Medical secrecy
Following his death, a controversy erupted when his former physician, Dr Claude Gubler, wrote a book called Le Grand Secret ("The Great Secret") explaining that Mitterrand
had had false health reports published since November 1981, hiding his cancer. Mitterrand's family then prosecuted Gubler and his publisher for violating medical secrecy.
Ptain
Mitterrand came under fire in 1992 when it was revealed that he had arranged for the laying of a wreath of flowers on the grave of Philippe Ptain each Armistice Day since 1987.
Ptain had been the leader of French forces at the dramatic Battle of Verdun in World War I, for which he was revered by his contemporaries. Later, however, he became leader
of Vichy France after the French defeat by Germany (June 1940) in World War II, collaborating with Nazi Germany and putting anti-semitic measures into place.
The placing of such a wreath was not without precedent. Presidents Charles de Gaulle and Valry Giscard d'Estaing had wreaths placed on Ptain's grave to commemorate the
50th and 60th anniversaries of the end of World War I. Similarly, President Georges Pompidou had a wreath placed in 1973 when Ptain's remains were returned to the Ile d'Yeu
after being stolen. Nonetheless, Mitterrand's regular annual tributes went beyond the marking by his predecessors of exceptional occasions, and offended sensibilities at a time
when France was re-examining its role in the Holocaust.
Urba
The Urba consultancy was established in 1971 by the Socialist Party to advise Socialist-led communes on infrastructure projects and public works. The Urba affair became public
in 1989 when two police officers investigating the Marseille regional office of Urba discovered detailed minutes of the organisation's contracts and division of proceeds between the
party and elected officials. Although the minutes proved a direct link between Urba and graft activity, an edict from the office of Mitterrand, himself listed as a recipient, prevented
further investigation. The Mitterrand election campaign of 1988 was directed by Henri Nallet, who then became Justice Minister and therefore in charge of the investigation at
national level. In 1990 Mitterrand declared an amnesty for those under investigation, thus ending the affair. Socialist Party treasurer Henri Emmanuelli was tried in 1997 for
corruption offences, for which he received a two-year suspended sentence.
Wiretaps
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Wiretaps
From 1982 to 1986, Mitterrand established an "anti-terror cell" installed as a service of the President of the Republic. This was an unusual set-up, since such law enforcement
missions against terrorism are normally left to the National Police and Gendarmerie, run under the cabinet and the Prime Minister, and under the supervision of the judiciary. The
cell was largely staffed by members of these services, but it bypassed the normal line of command and safeguards. 3000 conversations concerning 150 people (7 for reasons
judged to be contestable by the ensuing court process) were recorded between January 1983 and March 1986 by this anti terrorist cell at the Elyse Palace. In one of its first
actions, the cell was involved in the "Irish of Vincennes" affair, in which it appeared that members of the cell had planted weapons and explosives in the Vincennes apartment of
three Irish nationals who were arrested on terrorism charges. Most markedly, it appears that the cell, under illegal presidential orders, obtained wiretaps on journalists, politicians
and other personalities who may have been an impediment for Mitterrand's personal life. The illegal wiretapping was revealed in 1993 by Libration; the case against members of
the cell went to trial in November 2004.[79][80]
It took 20 years for the 'affaire' to come before the courts because the instructing judge Jean-Paul Vallat was at first thwarted by the 'affaire' being classed a defence secret, but in
December 1999 la Commission consultative du secret de la dfense nationale declassified part of the files concerned. The Judge finished his investigation in 2000, but it still took
another four years before coming on 15 November 2004 before the 16th chamber of the Tribunal correctionnel de Paris. 12 people were charged with "atteinte la vie prive"
(breach of privacy) and one with selling computer files. 7 were given suspended sentences and fines and 4 were found not guilty.
The 'affaire' finally ended before the Tribunal correctionnel de Paris with the court's judgement on 9 November 2005. 7 members of the President's anti-terrorist unit were
condemned and Mitterrand was designated as the "inspirator and essentially the controller of the operation."[81]
The court's judgement revealed that Mitterrand was motivated by keeping elements of his private life secret from the general public, such as the existence of his illegitimate daughter
Mazarine Pingeot (which the writer Jean-Edern Hallier, was threatening to reveal), his cancer which had been diagnosed in 1981, and the elements of his past in the Vichy Rgime
which were not already public knowledge. The court judged that certain people were tapped for "obscure" reasons, such as Carole Bouquet's companion, a lawyer with family in
the Middle East, Edwy Plenel, a journalist for le Monde who covered the Rainbow Warrior story and the Vincennes Three affair, and the lawyer Antoine Comte. The court
declared "Les faits avaient t commis sur ordre soit du prsident de la Rpublique, soit des ministres de la Dfense successifs qui ont mis la disposition de (Christian Prouteau)
tous les moyens de l'tat afin de les excuter" (translation: these actions were committed following orders from the French President or his various Defence Ministers who gave
Christian Prouteau full access to the state machinery so he could execute the orders) The court stated that Mitterrand was the principal instigator of the wire taps (l'inspirateur et le
dcideur de l'essentiel) and that he had ordered some of the taps and turned a blind eye to others and that none of the 3000 wiretaps carried out by the cell were legally
obtained.[82]
On 13 March 2007 the Court of Appeal in Paris awarded 1 damages to the actress Carole Bouquet and 5000 to Lieutenant-Colonel Jean-Michel Beau for breach of
privacy.[83]
The case was taken to the European Court of Human Rights, which gave judgement on 7 June 2007 that the rights of free expression of the journalists involved in the case were not
respected.
In 2008 the French state was ordered by the courts to give Jean-Edern Hallier's family compensation.[84]
Rwanda
Paris assisted Rwanda's president Juvnal Habyarimana, who was assassinated on 6 April 1994 while travelling in a Dassault Falcon 50 given to him as a personal gift of
Mitterrand. Through the offices of the 'Cellule Africaine', a Presidential office headed by Mitterrand's son, Jean-Christophe, he provided the Hutu regime with financial and military
support in the early 1990s. With French assistance, the Rwandan army grew from a force of 9,000 men in October 1990 to 28,000 in 1991. France also provided training staff,
experts and massive quantities of weaponry and facilitated arms contracts with Egypt and South Africa. It also financed, armed and trained Habyrimana's Presidential Guard.
French troops were deployed under Opration Turquoise, a military operation carried out under a United Nations (UN) mandate. The operation is currently the object of political
and historical debate.
Bombing of the Rainbow Warrior

Main article: Sinking of the Rainbow Warrior
Further information: FranceNew Zealand relations
Killing of Fernando Pereira
On 10 July 1985, the Rainbow Warrior, a Greenpeace vessel, was in New Zealand preparing to protest against French nuclear testing in the South Pacific when two explosions
sank the ship. Photographer Fernando Pereira tried, following the first explosion, to retrieve his equipment, and was caught by the second explosion and drowned. The New
Zealand government called the bombing the first terrorist attack in the country.[85][86] In mid-1985, French Defence Minister Charles Hernu was forced to resign after the
discovery of French involvement in the attack against the Rainbow Warrior.
On the twentieth anniversary of the sinking it was revealed that Mitterrand had personally authorised the bombing which resulted in Pereira's death.[87] Admiral Pierre Lacoste, the
former head of the DGSE, made a statement saying Pereira's death weighed heavily on his conscience. Also on that anniversary, Television New Zealand (TVNZ) sought to access
a video recording made at the preliminary hearing where two French agents pleaded guilty, a battle they won in 2006.
Political career
President of the French Republic: 19811995. Reelected in 1988.
Governmental functions
Minister of State, minister of Justice: 19561957.
Minister of Interior: 19541955.
Minister for Council of Europe: JuneSeptember 1953
Minister of State: JanuaryMarch 1952.
Minister of Overseas and Colonies: 19501951.
Secretary of State for Presidency of Council: 19481949.
Secretary of State for Information: JulySeptember 1948.
Minister of Veterans and War Victims: 19471948.
Electoral mandates
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National Assembly of France

Member of the National Assembly of France for Nivre: 19461958 / 19621981 (resignation, became President of the French Republic in 1981). Elected in 1946, reelected in
1951, 1956, 1962, 1967, 1968, 1973, 1978.
Senate of France
Senator of Nivre: 19591962 (resignation, reelected member of the National Assembly of France in 1962). Elected in 1959.
General Council
President of the General Council of Nivre: 19641981 (resignation, became President of the French Republic in 1981). Reelected in 1967, 1970, 1973, 1976, 1979.
General councillor of Nivre: 19491981 (resignation). Reelected in 1955, 1961, 1967, 1973, 1979.
Municipal Council
Mayor of Chteau-Chinon (Ville): 19591981 (resignation, became President of the French Republic in 1981). Reelected in 1965, 1971, 1977.
Municipal councillor of Chteau-Chinon (Ville): 19591981 (resignation). Reelected in 1965, 1971, 1977.
Political function
First Secretary (leader) of the Socialist Party: 19711981 (resignation, became President of the French Republic in 1981). Reelected in 1973, 1975, 1977, 1979.
Honours
France
Grand Master of the Legion of Honour
Grand Master of the Ordre national du Mrite
Foreign honours
This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it (https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Fran%C3%A7ois_Mitterrand&action=edit).
Iceland: Grand Cross with Collar of the Order of the Falcon (12 April 1983) [88]
Italy: Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic (July 1982)[89]
Netherlands: Grand Cross of the Order of the Netherlands Lion (1991)[90]
Portugal: Grand Collar of the Order of Prince Henry (29 September 1983)[91]
Portugal: Grand Collar of the Order of Liberty (28 October 1987)[91]
South Africa: Grand Cross of the Order of Good Hope in 1994 [92]
Sweden: Knight of the Royal Order of the Seraphim (11 May 1984)[93][94]
United Kingdom: Honorary Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath (See List) [95]
Philippines: Raja of the Order of Sikatuna (11 July 1989)
Vexillology and heraldry

President Mitterrand had chosen a tree half oak half olive-tree as symbol for his presidential flag.[96]
President Mitterrand received from King Carl XVI Gustav of Sweden a coat of arms linked to the reception of the Order of the Seraphim, which reproduces this symbol.[93]
References
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*Franois Mitterrand, Mmoires interrompus, d. Odile Jacob, 1996
reprinted in Politique I, in 1978
Robert Belot in La Rsistance sans De Gaulle, d. Fayard, 2006, et Henry Rousso in l'Express n 2871, du 13 juillet 2006
Jean Lacouture, Mitterrand, une histoire de Franais, op. cit., pp. 75/79 et Franz-Olivier Giesbert, Franois Mitterrand, une vie, d. du Seuil, Points , 1996, pp. 77/79
Pierre Pan, Une jeunesse franaise, op. cit., pp. 217/218 et Jean Lacouture, Mitterrand, une histoire de Franais, op. cit., p. 81
a photograph taken at this meeting is on the cover of Pierre Pan's book. Marcel Barrois is in the photo.
"autumn 1943", from : Franz-Olivier Giesbert, Franois Mitterrand ou la tentation de l'histoire, ditions du Seuil, 1977 ISBN 2-02-004591-5, chap. 5, p.49.
Jean Pierre-Bloch, De Gaulle ou le temps des mprises (pp. 216/218) C'tait sur notre ordre que Franois Mitterrand tait rest dans les services de prisonniers de Vichy. Lorsqu'il
avait t propos pour la francisque, nous avions t parfaitement tenus au courant ; nous lui avions conseill d'accepter cette "distinction" pour ne pas se dvoiler. .
Jacques Attali, C'tait Franois Mitterrand, Fayard, 2005
Pierre Pan, op. cit., p. 302
Pierre Pan, op. cit., pp. 309/310
Patrick Rotman et Jean Lacouture, "le roman du pouvoir" (http://www.lexpress.fr/info/france/dossier/mitt/dossier.asp?ida=418472), L'Express
Franz-Olivier Giesbert, Franois Mitterrand, une vie, p. 94. "Franois Mitterrand avait russi mettre sur pied un vritable rseau de renseignement dans les camps. Grce aux
prisonniers de guerre, nous avons pu prendre connaissances d'informations, parfois dcisives, sur ce qui se passait derrire les frontires"
On 12 July 1944 Maurice Schumann (la voice of the Free French) recounted this event on BBC radio.
Jean Lacouture, Mitterrand, une histoire de Franais, op. cit., pp. 97 et 99
Franz-Olivier Giesbert, Franois Mitterrand, une vie, d. du Seuil, 1996, p. 100
Pierre Pan book pp. 364/365
Jean Lacouture, Mitterrand, une histoire de Franais, tome 1, p. 102
Mmoires de guerre, tome 3, de Gaulle
Jean Lacouture, Mitterrand, une histoire de Franais, d. Seuil, 2000, the book is quoted on La Fabrique de sens (http://www.fabriquedesens.net/Robert-Antelme-signataire-du)
Entretiens indits Franois Mitterrand Marguerite Duras, d. sonores Frmeaux & Associs, 2007 ?
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Paxton, Robert O. (28 June 1987). "The Mitterrand Mystery". The New York Times. Retrieved 2 May 2010. [sic]
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"lection prsidentielle de 1981". Miroirs.ironie.org. Retrieved 11 March 2013.
Socialism, the State and Public Policy in France edited by Philip G. Cerny and Martin A. Schain
Mitterrand's France Edited by Sonia Mazey and Michael Newman
Vail, Mark I. (2009). Recasting Welfare Capitalism Economic Adjustment in Contemporary France and Germany. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. ISBN 978-1-59213-967-5.
Contemporary France: Politics and Society Since 1945 by D. L. Hanley, Miss A P Kerr, N. H. Waites
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Bearce, D. (2009). Monetary Divergence: Domestic Policy Autonomy in the Post-Bretton Woods Era. University of Michigan Press. p. 107. ISBN 9780472023097. Retrieved
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The French Socialist Party: Resurgence and Victory by D. S. Bell and Byron Criddle
France during the socialist years by Gino Raymond
Hoskyns, C. (1996). Integrating Gender: Women, Law and Politics in the European Union. Verso. p. 217. ISBN 9781859840788. Retrieved 7 December 2014.
European Welfare Policy: Squaring the Welfare Circle edited by Vic George and Peter Taylor-Gooby
Corbett, Anne; Moon, Bob (2002-03-11). Education in France: Continuity and Change in the Mitterrand Years 19811995. Taylor & Francis. pp. 96. ISBN 978-0-203-03568-9.
Retrieved 28 August 2014.
The French Socialist Experiment by John S. Ambler
The French Socialists in Power, 19811986 by Patrick McCarthy
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Shields, J. (2007). The Extreme Right in France: From Ptain to Le Pen. Taylor & Francis. p. 200. ISBN 9781134861118. Retrieved 7 December 2014.
The Death of Politics: France under Mitterrand by John Laughland
Winter, B. (2008). Hijab and the Republic: Uncovering the French Headscarf Debate. Syracuse University Press. p. 113. ISBN 9780815651321. Retrieved 7 December 2014.
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[1] (http://www.oecd.org/gov/publicsectorinnovationande-government/2537279.pdf) Archived
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Armingeon, K.; Bonoli, G. (2007). The Politics of Post-Industrial Welfare States: Adapting Post-War Social Policies to New Social Risks. Taylor & Francis. p. 218.
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"National Analytical Study on Housing" (PDF). Retrieved 11 March 2013.
"Le portail du service public de la Scurit sociale / Lallocation de rentre scolaire est (...)". securite-sociale.fr. Retrieved 7 December 2014.
Innovation, C.E.R. (1997). Implementing Inclusive Education. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. p. 24. ISBN 9789264155893. Retrieved 7 December 2014.
France since 1870: Culture, Politics, and Society by Charles Sowerine
One Hundred Years of Socialism: The West European Left in the Twentieth Century by Donald Sassoon
The Mitterrand Years: Legacy and Evaluation edited by Mairi Maclean
Whitney, Craig R. (9 January 1996). "Francois Mitterrand Dies at 79; Champion of a Unified Europe". The New York Times (The New York Times Company): 1. Retrieved
10 November 2011.
See discussion page, including reference to the accounts of Roger Hanin and George-Marc Benhamou (Link at: http://www.denistouret.net/textes/Benamou.html). See also "The Last
Meal" by Michael Paterniti, Esquire Magazine, 1 May 1998. Accessed on 1 January 2011 at: http://www.esquire.com/features/The-Last-Meal-0598.
Mitterrand's role revealed in Rwandan genocide warning (http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article2730430.ece), 3 July 2007. The Independent
Binyon, Michael (11 September 2009). "Thatcher told Gorbachev Britain did not want German reunification". The Times (London). Retrieved 2 May 2010.
Beyond Enlargement Fatigue? The Dutch debate on Turkish accession (http://www.esiweb.org/index.php?lang=en&id=156&document_ID=74), European Security Initiative 2006
sueddeutsche.de 10.9.2009: Fr Thatcher war Deutschland eine gefhrliche Krte (http://www.sueddeutsche.de/politik/deutsche-einheit-fuer-thatcher-war-deutschland-einegefaehrliche-kroete-1.28579)
73. spiegel.de: Mitterrand forderte Euro als Gegenleistung fr die Einheit (http://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/0,1518,719608,00.html); spiegel.de 27. April 1998: Dunkelste Stunden.
Der Kanzler ffnet die Akten ber die deutsche Einheit. Die Dokumente zeigen: Frankreich hat das schnelle Ende der Mark erzwungen. (http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d7870401.html); spiegel.de 2. Mrz 1998: Weg ohne Wiederkehr. Hinter der Fassade ihrer deutsch-franzsischen Freundschaft haben Helmut Kohl und Franois Mitterrand erbittert
um Einheit und Euro gerungen, wie jetzt neue Dokumente aus dem Kanzleramt zeigen. (http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-7833746.html)
74. spiegel.de 8. May 2012: Operation Self-Deceit: New Documents Shine Light on Euro Birth Defects (http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/euro-struggles-can-be-traced-toorigins-of-common-currency-a-831842.html)
75. Franois Mitterrand et la dmocratie en Afrique, huit ans aprs (http://helios.univreims.fr/Labos/CERI/Mitterrand_et_la_democratie_en_Afrique.htm#UN%20DISCOURS%20DE%20CIRCONSTANCE), by Albert Bourgi, Centre d'tudes et de recherches
internationales (CERI) (mixed study unit with the CNRS, dependent of the Fondation Nationale des Sciences Politiques) (French)
76. Les 22 premires confrences des chefs d'Etat de France et d'Afrique (http://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/fr/IMG/pdf/B0100_-fiche22sommets.pdf), on French government website
URL accessed in January 2007 (French)
77. Le discours de la Baule et le pluralisme en Afrique noire francophone. Essai d'analyse d'une contribution l'instauration de la dmocratie dans les tats d'Afrique noire d'expression
franaise (http://doc-iep.univ-lyon2.fr/Ressources/Documents/Etudiants/Memoires/detail-memoire.html?ID=310), 199394 DEA mmoire of Flix Franois Lissouck, under the
direction of Paul Bacot, held in the Political Studies Institute (IEP) of Lyon. (French)
78. "Allocution de M. Franois Mitterrand, Prsident de la Rpublique, aux crmonies du tricentenaire de la Rvocation de l'Edit de Nantes, sur la tolrance en matire politique et
religieuse et l'histoire du protestantisme en France, Paris, Palais de l'UNESCO". Discours.vie-publique.fr. 1985-10-11. Retrieved 11 March 2013.
79. "(Subscription)". Le Monde. France. Retrieved 3 June 2010.
80. Von Derschau, Verena. "Le procs des "coutes de l'Elyse" doit commencer lundi Paris". La Presse Canadienne.
81. "La police franaise dploie ses grandes oreilles, 30 mai 2007". News.fr. Retrieved 3 June 2010.
82. Les oreilles du Prsident de Jean-Marie Pontaut et Jrome Dupuis, Fayard, 1996. Les mots vols de Edwy Plenel, Stock, 1997. Le Journaliste et le Prsident de Edwy Plenel, 2006.
83. Carole Bouquet victime des coutes de l'Elyse (http://www.lexpress.fr/info/quotidien/actu.asp?id=9840), L'Express, mardi 13 mars 2007, 18h19 ; Carole Bouquet rtablie
comme victime des coutes de l'Elyse (http://fr.news.yahoo.com/13032007/290/carole-bouquet-retablie-comme-victime-des-ecoutes-de-l-elysee.html), PARIS (Reuters), mardi 13
mars 2007, 17h03, cit par Yahoo! News ; Libration, 17 mars 2007 cit dans Les coutes de llyse : la cour dappel de Paris lcoute ... dune nouvelle civilisation
(http://www.agoravox.fr/article.php3?id_article=20952), AgoraVox, le mdia citoyen
84. J.-B., coutes de l'Elyse : l'tat devra indemniser la famille Hallier (http://www.lefigaro.fr/actualite-france/2008/07/25/01016-20080725ARTFIG00385-ecoutes-de-l-elysee-l-etatdevra-indemniser-la-famille-hallier-.php.), Le Figaro, 25 juillet 2008
85. Greenpeace, vingt ans aprs : le rapport secret de l'amiral Lacoste (http://www.lemonde.fr/web/article/0,1-0@2-3226,36-671207@51-671291,0.html), Le Monde, 10 July 2005
(Subscription) (French)
86. Painton, Frederick (30 September 1985). "France "Criminal, Absurd . . . and Stupid" 30 Sep. 1985". Time. Retrieved 3 June 2010.
87. "Mitterrand ordered bombing of Rainbow Warrior, spy chief says 11 July 2005". Times Online. Retrieved 11 March 2013.
88. Icelandese Presidency Website (http://falkadb.forseti.is/orduskra/fal03.php?term=Mitterand%2C+Fran%E7ois&sub=Leita), Mitterrand, Franois ; forseti Frakklands ; Frakkland ;
1983-04-12 ; Strkross me keju (Franois Mitterrand ; Prsident of France ; France ; 1983-04-12 ; Grand Cross with Collar)
89. Italian Presidency Website, S.E. Francois MITTERAND (http://www.quirinale.it/elementi/DettaglioOnorificenze.aspx?decorato=15708), "Cavaliere di Gran Croce Ordine al Merito
della Repubblica Italiana"
90. Volks krant, State visit of Netherlands in France (Mitterrand), 1991, Group Photo (http://static2.volkskrant.nl/static/photo/2012/5/3/3/album_large_1067178.jpg)
91. Portuguese Presidency Website, Orders search form (http://www.ordens.presidencia.pt/?idc=154&list=1) : type "MITTERRAND" in "nome", then click "Pesquisar"
92. "1994 National Orders awards". Info.gov.za. 2007-12-06. Retrieved 11 March 2013.
93. Heraldry (http://www.debatthuset.com/forums/showthread.php?t=12637) of the Order of the Seraphim
94. Photos (http://www.reservoirphoto.com/fotoweb/Search_results.fwx?folderid=5000&search=%28IPTC025%20contains%20%28Carl%20XVI%20Gustav%29%29) of the state visit
in Sweden
95. Photo (http://media.tipsimages.it/MediaNews/Logo/RDA00028436.jpg) of the state visit in United Kingdom
96. "Flags of President of the Republic". Svowebmaster.free.fr. Retrieved 11 March 2013.
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Further reading
Bell, David S. "Franois Mitterrand: the President as Political Artist." in David S. Bell and John Gaffney, eds. The Presidents of the French Fifth Republic (2013): 136+
Cogan, Charles. "Mitterrand, France, and NATO: the European transition." Journal of Transatlantic Studies (2011) 9#3 pp: 257-267.
Cole, Alistair. Franois Mitterrand: a study in political leadership, London, Routledge, 1994, ISBN 0-415-07159-3.
Laughland, John. The Death of Politics: France Under Mitterrand (1994)
Short, Philip. Mitterrand. A study in ambiguity, London, Bodley Head, 2014; published in the United States as "A Taste for Intrigue: The Multiple Lives of Franois
Mitterrand
External links
Louvre inauguration speech by Mitterrand (http://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/Inauguration_du_Grand_Louvre)
Franois Mitterrand Institute (http://www.mitterrand.org)
French President Poll (01/2006) (http://www.guardian.co.uk/france/story/0,,1676950,00.html)
"Mitterrand's Legacy" (http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=19960129&s=singer) (1996) in The Nation
Source of quoted article
Wikimedia Commons has

media related to Franois
Mitterrand.
Wikiquote has quotations
related to: Franois
Mitterrand
Assembly seats
Preceded by
Roger Gillot
Deputy from the 3rd district of Nivre

10 November 1946 8 December 1958
Succeeded by
Jehan Faulquier
Preceded by
Jean Doussot
Senator from Nivre

26 April 1959 13 December 1962
Succeeded by
Daniel Benost
Preceded by
Jehan Faulquier
Deputy from the 3rd district of Nivre

6 December 1962 21 May 1981
Succeeded by
Bernard Bardin
Preceded by
Max Lejeune

1947
Succeeded by
Daniel Mayer
Preceded by
Daniel Mayer

19471948
Succeeded by
Andr Maroselli
Preceded by
Paul Coste-Floret
Minister of Overseas France

19501951
Succeeded by
Louis Jacquinot
Preceded by
Lon Martinaud-Deplat
Minister of the Interior

19541955
Succeeded by
Maurice Bourgs-Maunoury
Preceded by
Robert Schuman
Minister of Justice
19561957
Succeeded by
Edouard Corniglion-Molinier
Preceded by
President of France
19811995
Succeeded by
Jacques Chirac
New title
SFIO nominee for President of France

1965
Succeeded by
Gaston Defferre
First Direct Elections
Communist nominee for President of France

1965
Succeeded by
Jacques Duclos
Preceded by
Alain Savary
First Secretary of the Socialist Party

19711981
New political party
Socialist nominee for President of France

1974, 1981, 1988
Political offices
Party political offices
Succeeded by
Lionel Jospin
Regnal titles
19811995
Preceded by
Served alongside: Joan Mart i Alanis
Succeeded by
Jacques Chirac
Catholic Church titles

Preceded by
Honorary Canon of the Basilica of St. John Lateran

19811995
Succeeded by
Jacques Chirac
12/13
10/31/2015

19811995
Jacques Chirac
Preceded by
Pierre Trudeau
Chairperson of the Group of 7

1982
Succeeded by
Ronald Reagan
Preceded by
Brian Mulroney
Chairperson of the Group of 7

1989
Succeeded by
George H. W. Bush
Preceded by
Ruud Lubbers
Speaker of the College of Europe Opening Ceremony

1987
Diplomatic posts
Academic offices
Succeeded by
Margaret Thatcher
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Franois_Mitterrand&oldid=687667429"

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François Mitterrand - Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia

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"Mitterrand" redirects here. For other uses, see Mitterrand (disambiguation).

President of the French Republic

Valry Giscard d'Estaing

First Secretary of the Socialist Party

Prime Minister Guy Mollet

Prime Minister Pierre Mends-France

Minister-Delegate to the Council of Europe

Valry Giscard d'Estaing

Prime Minister Joseph Laniel

Pierre Pflimlin (1952)

Franois Mitterrand - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Pierre Pflimlin (1952)

Edgar Faure (1958)

Prime Minister Edgar Faure

Minister of Veterans and War Victims

Franois Maurice Adrien Marie

8 January 1996 (aged 79)

Political party Cross of Fire

Democratic and Socialist Union of the

Second World War

Convention of Republican Institutions

Prime Minister Robert Schuman

Prime Minister Robert Schuman

Prime Minister Ren Pleven

Danielle Gouze (m. 1944; his death 1996)

Franois Mitterrand - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Mitterrand with U.S.

Second term, 198895

1990 speech at La Baule

Apology to the Huguenots

Prime Ministers during presidency

1984 1986 The youngest PM since Decazes (39 years old)

1986 1988 First cohabitation of the Fifth Republic

1991 1992 First female prime minister

Pierre Brgovoy 1992 1993

Franois Mitterrand - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Bombing of the Rainbow Warrior

Franois Mitterrand - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

National Assembly of France

Vexillology and heraldry

Franois Mitterrand - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

option=com_virtuemart&page=shop.livrets&content_id=2087&product_id=834&category_id=69 en ligne (http://www.fremeaux.com/index.php)

Franois Mitterrand - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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Deputy from the 3rd district of Nivre

Senator from Nivre

Deputy from the 3rd district of Nivre

Minister of Veterans and War Victims

Minister of Veterans and War Victims

Minister of Overseas France

Minister of the Interior

SFIO nominee for President of France

First Direct Elections

Communist nominee for President of France

First Secretary of the Socialist Party

New political party

Socialist nominee for President of France

Party political offices

Served alongside: Joan Mart i Alanis

Catholic Church titles

Honorary Canon of the Basilica of St. John Lateran

Franois Mitterrand - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia