François Mitterrand

François Maurice Adrien Marie Mitterrand (Jarnac, October 26, 1916 - Paris, January 8, 1996) was a French politician, president of the French Republic from 1981 to 1995, the most long in the presidency of the country's history.

Biography

Origins and formation

François Mitterrand was born into a conservative Catholic family from the provinces. His father, Joseph, was a railroad agent, later a vinegar manufacturer, and became president of the Federation of Vinegar Manufacturers' Unions. François had three brothers and four sisters.

Between 1925 and 1934 he studied secondary school at Saint-Paul College in Angoulême. There Mitterrand joined the Christian Student Youth in French known as JEC (Jeunesse étudiante chrétienne), a student branch of Catholic Action. Then, and until 1937, he studied at the Escuela Libre de Ciencias Políticas, from which he graduated in July 1937.

His relations with the extreme right

At that time (between 1935 and 1936) he was a member of Colonel de La Rocque's Volontaires nationaux (national volunteers) for about a year. » in February 1935 and later in those held against Law Professor Gaston Jèze, after his appointment as legal adviser to the Ethiopian negus, in January 1936. He was related, through friendship or family, with members of La Cagoule. He wrote articles in right-wing newspapers such as L'Écho de Paris by Henri de Kerillis, close to the fascist French Social Party. They are literature articles, but also about contemporary society and politics.In 1938 he met Georges Dayan (Jew and socialist) whom he saved from anti-Semitic attacks by French Action, becoming great friends.

Between 1937 and 1939 he did military service in the colonial infantry.

Vichy Regime and Resistance

In September 1939, after the German invasion of Poland, World War II broke out. At the same time that Mitterrand finished his law studies in Paris, he was sent to the Maginot line, near Montmédy, with the rank of sergeant major. In May 1940 he was the boyfriend of Marie-Louise Terrasse, the future journalist Catherine Langeais, with whom he broke up in January 1942.

On June 14, 1940, Sergeant Mitterrand was taken prisoner by the German army. After eighteen months in the stalags and two failed attempts, he escaped in December and returned to France. In the following years he worked in the "French Legion of combatants and volunteers of the national revolution" as a contract, and since June in the Commissariat for the reclassification of prisoners of war, where he helped fugitives to obtain false documentation, a position he held. resigned after six months. During the summer of 1942 he participated in meetings at the Château de Montmaur in which the foundations of his Resistance network were laid. On October 15, he was received by Marshal Pétain together with various officials of the Committee for Mutual Aid to Allier Repatriated Prisoners, and in the spring of 1943 he was awarded the "Order of Francisca" by the government. Soon after, harassed by the Gestapo, the Sicherheitsdienst and the French Militia, he went into hiding. He traveled to London and Algiers, where he contacted Generals De Gaulle and Giraud. In February 1944 he led the "National Movement of prisoners of war and deportees" in France, which unified all the resistance networks of prisoners of war. He participated in the liberation of Paris in June, seizing the headquarters of the General Commissariat for Prisoners of War. In October 1944 he organized, together with Jacques Foccart, the « opération Viacarage », whose objective was to liberate the prisoner and concentration camps.

Fourth Republic

Rise, left turn and colonial liberalism (1944-1954)

Shortly thereafter, François Mitterrand participated in the Government of the General Secretaries advocated by Charles de Gaulle before the establishment of the provisional government in Paris. On October 27, 1944, he married Danielle Gouze.

In 1945, François Mitterrand and André Bettencourt testified on behalf of Eugène Schueller, founder of the L'Oréal group, and collaborator and financier of the Cagoule. Mitterrand briefly worked as a director of the Rond-Point publishing house and as director of the magazine Votre Beauté, of the group founded by Schueller.

In February 1946, Mitterrand joined the Democratic and Socialist Union of Resistance (UDSR), of which he would be president between 1953 and 1965 and which offered him his first political laboratory.

François Mitterrand in 1947 as Minister of Former Combatants in the government of Paul Ramadier

On November 10, 1946, François Mitterrand was elected deputy for the Nièvre department, heading a list of Unity and Republican Action, with an anti-communist program. The following year he became the youngest minister in France to occupy the portfolio of Veterans and War Victims in the government of socialist Paul Ramadier. In the following years he held different ministerial portfolios: Information, Overseas and the delegated ministry in the Council of Europe.

In May 1948, he was one of the 800 delegates —including Konrad Adenauer, Winston Churchill, Harold Macmillan, Paul-Henri Spaak, Albert Coppé and Altiero Spinelli— who participated in the Hague Congress, the origin of the European movement, to which he adhered.

In 1950, René Pleven appointed him Minister of Overseas. He was in favor of establishing a Franco-African union in which the overseas territories would enjoy freely agreed and negotiated autonomy, and he strove to improve the condition of Africans, still subjected to a harsh regime. He was then treated as an "empire baratillero" and, from that moment, he attracted the hostility of the conservative colonists and the Gaullist party of the time, the RPF.

In 1952, he took charge of the Tunisian question in the government of Edgar Faure and outlined a plan for internal autonomy. However, the Faure government fell just six weeks after it was formed. The liberals in colonial matters provisionally left the government. After the formation of the government of Antoine Pinay, Mitterrand criticized the systematic participation of the UDSR in the governments and proposed a turn to the left. He denounced before the Assembly the repressive policy of the government and vehemently defended the right of Tunisians to autonomy.

In 1953, he obtained the position of minister delegate to the Council of Europe, but he soon resigned due to his disagreement with the repressive policies carried out in Morocco and Tunisia. He advocated for those countries, as well as for Indochina, a more liberal policy. He signed, together with personalities such as Albert Camus, Alain Savary and Louis Vallon, the France-Maghreb Manifesto, which requested that «... all legal means be put in place so that the principles of Human Rights are applied without distinction in North Africa."

In the fall he became president of the UDSR. He imposed a liberal line for overseas France. After the Indochina war ended, he constituted a Franco-African group, first federal and then confederal —which meant first granting autonomy and then independence-association to the French colonies. He published On the borders of the French Union. Indochina-Tunisia, with a foreword by Pierre Mendès France. He declared himself in favor of the independence of Indochina — achieving an association if possible — and the reconstruction of ties with African countries: defense, currency and foreign policy should be the responsibility of the French Union, with full association of Africans in the decisions; the other aspects would be the responsibility of local autonomous governments.

The storm of the Algerian war (1954-1958)

In 1954 he became Minister of the Interior in the government of Pierre Mendès France. He was soon affected by the political problems raised in Algeria. Despite having a slightly more liberal idea than his predecessors, Mitterrand believed that this case was not the same as that of Morocco or Tunisia (in Algeria there were a million French of European origin concentrated in the north of the current country) and he was contrary. to independence. His attempts to transfer Governor General Léonard and the director of the Paris mosque, and to increase the minimum wage in Algeria, in order to appease the spirits of the Arab population, ran into the deep conservatism of settlers and administration. In October he traveled to Algeria, where he found obvious hostility among the colonists in favor of a French Algeria.

On November 5 of that same year, in the gallery of the National Assembly, at the same time as the first riots of what would end up being the Algerian war broke out, he declared that «...the Algerian rebellion can only find a terminal form: war. These statements seemed to be intended to reassure the colonialist wing of the centrist deputies (radicals and Christian Democrats), who could overthrow the government.

The same month, Mitterrand announced a major increase in social investment in Algeria in agriculture and education, seeking to foster "the equality of citizens [...] equal opportunities for all who, whatever their origin, were born in Algerian soil. According to the prime minister, he merged the Algiers and Paris police forces with the aim of preventing torture. He ended the autonomy of the Algerian police and transferred two hundred agents, including the director of the Information Services, on whom there were well-founded suspicions of having participated in torture. Conservatives on colonial issues harshly criticized that decision.

In 1956, he was appointed Minister of Justice in the government of Guy Mollet. Mitterrand participated in the government negotiations that concluded with the independence of Tunisia and Morocco and the autonomy of French black Africa. Regarding the Algerian question, he harshly criticized (in private) the repressive drift that followed the failure of the liberalization attempt, in February 1956. However, and despite his reluctance, he was commissioned by the Council of Ministers of defend the bill that restored special powers to the army. Mitterrand remained in the government despite his growing reluctance, since his ambition was to become prime minister. After the resignation of Guy Mollet, Mitterrand refused to enter a government of which he was not president. He did not succeed, despite the fact that the President of the Republic René Coty thought very seriously about using him for said position.

A staunch opponent of Charles de Gaulle, in September 1958, he called for the "no" in the referendum on the Constitution of the Fifth Republic, which was nevertheless approved with a very large majority and promulgated on October 4, 1958. Mitterrand called General de Gaulle a "new dictator." Mitterrand lost in the legislative elections of November 30, 1958.

Fifth Republic

Political survival and the first attempts to unite the left (1959-1971)

In July 1959 he was elected mayor of Château-Chinon, a position he held until May 1981, and a month later senator for Nièvre. He enrolled in the parliamentary group of Democratic Left (Gauche démocratique). In October 1959, the Observatory Attack (Observatoire) took place, which ended with the indictment of François Mitterrand for insulting the magistracy. The 1966 amnesty law put an end to this procedure. On November 25, 1962, Mitterrand regained his seat as deputy in Nièvre and left the Senate.

During the referendum of 1962, he proposed voting against the President of the Republic being elected by direct suffrage. The "yes" vote won with 62.25% of the votes cast (46.66% of the census).

In 1964 he became president of the General Council of Nièvre. He headed the Convention of Republican Institutions (CIR) and published The Permanent Coup , which reinforced his opposition to De Gaulle. Despite being the representative of the CIR, which was a small formation, in 1965 he became the sole candidate of the left in the presidential elections. He obtained an unexpected second position, with some ten million votes, more than the centrist candidate Jean Lecanuet (15% of votes). For the second round, Mitterrand received the support not only of the entire left, but also that of the centrist Jean Monnet, that of the moderate conservative Paul Reynaud and that of part of the extreme right (Jean-Louis Tixier-Vignancour and supporters of the OAS). In the second round, with 55% of the vote, De Gaulle defeated Mitterrand, who obtained 45%.

Mitterrand in a rally in 1965

Strengthened by that result (nobody thought De Gaulle could lose), he went on to head the Federation of the Democratic and Socialist Left (FGDS), which brought together the non-communist left —mainly the SFIO, the Radical Party, the CIR and other groups. In the legislative elections of March 1967, the two-round majority ballot and the new provision that raised the threshold and eliminated for the second round all candidates who did not reach at least 10% of the census in the first round, favored the outgoing majority facing a heterogeneous opposition (communists, socialists and the centrists of Jacques Duhamel) and disunited. However, with 194 seats, the group on the left (FGDS and PCF) won 63 seats, leaving the Communist Party as the main leftist force with 22.5% of the vote. a single-seat majority in the National Assembly. In the metropolis, during the first round, the left as a whole (FGDS, PSU, PC) obtained even more votes than the Gaullist and Giscardian government parties (46% against 42.6%) while Duhamel's Democratic Center fell three points and was left with 7% of the votes. But with the extraordinary percentage —for France— of 38% of the vote, increasing two points compared to the previous elections, the Union for the V Republic was still the leading party in France.

On May 28, 1968, and in relation to the situation produced by the student riots, he declared: «It is convenient from now on to verify the power vacuum and organize the succession». These statements were made during a visit by General De Gaulle to Germany, where he had gone to consult General Massu about these same events, rather than alluding to a real power vacuum, and were interpreted by part of the population as a desire to remove party from a situation of national crisis. He proposed Mendès France to form a provisional government and announced his candidacy for the presidency of the Republic, in the event that early elections were held.

In his speech on May 30, de Gaulle rebuked Mitterrand harshly, announcing the organization of a referendum and declaring that he would resign if his proposal were rejected.

The recent riots caused a turn to the right of a French population eager to see order restored, and the early legislative elections of June 1968 resulted in a Gaullist avalanche (293 seats for the UNR alone and 61 more for the independent republicans) who formed a majority of the right that had not been seen in France since the victory of the National Bloc in 1919. While the left sank and went from 194 to 91 deputies. Mitterrand, however, managed to save his seat. However, his discredit was such that in 1969 he could not run for the presidency of the Republic. Guy Mollet refused to grant him the support of the SFIO. The left, represented by the socialist Gaston Defferre and the communist Jacques Duclos, did not reach the second round of an election that saw the Gaullist Georges Pompidou triumph over the centrist Alain Poher.

General Secretary of the PS (1971-1981)

In June 1971, after the Épinay Congress, the Convention of Republican Institutions merged with the Socialist Party created in 1969 to replace the SFIO. Mitterrand was elected Secretary General, supported by the left wing, CERES headed by Jean-Pierre Chevènement, and by two powerful federations: Nord, led by Pierre Mauroy, and Bouches-du-Rhône, led by Gaston Defferre.

In June 1972, he signed the "common program" of government together with the Communist Party of Georges Marchais and the Movement of Left Radicals of Robert Fabre. In March 1973, in the legislative elections, the PS obtained almost as many votes as the PCF in the first round and surpassed it in the second, ending a hegemony that went back to 1946. The cantonal elections of September of that same year confirmed the evolution.

Mitterrand in Toulouse in 1974

On April 2, 1974, Georges Pompidou, the current president, died and on May 19, 1974, as the sole candidate of the left in the presidential elections, Mitterrand lost to Valéry Giscard d'Estaing with 49, 2% of the votes in the second round. In the cantonal elections of March 1976 and in the municipal ones of March 1977, the previous trend was confirmed and the PS far surpassed the PCF. Once the position was reversed, the communists were no longer useful to the presidential ambitions of Mitterrand, who in 1977 broke the left-wing coalition and ended the "common program."

On June 29, 1979, the Socialist Party illegally transmitted the signal of its Radio Riposte station, from its headquarters in Paris. The police interrupted the transmission, confiscated the equipment and arrested the party's deputies and senators who were at the scene. For this reason, Mitterrand is persecuted by the authority for being responsible for the party, and the question arises as to whether he will be able to run in the 1981 presidential election.

In the legislative elections of March 1978, the majority left in the first round was surpassed in the second by the right (UDF-RPR). Michel Rocard, recently joined the PS from the ultra-leftist PSU and curiously incorporated into the right wing, then questioned the figure François Mitterrand and the leadership of the Socialist Party. In April 1979, Mitterrand sided with Jean-Pierre Chevènement's CERES against Michel Rocard and emerged victorious at the party congress in Metz. In January 1981, at the extraordinary congress in Créteil, he was appointed presidential candidate for the PS and put forward his program of "110 proposals."

On April 26, 1981, in the first round of the presidential elections, Mitterrand trailed just behind the outgoing president with 25'85% of the vote compared to 28% for Valéry Giscard d'Stating. Jacques Chirac was in third place with 18%. On the night of May 10, Mitterrand was elected President of the Republic with 51.8% against Giscard's 48%. Chirac's support for the outgoing president was very ambiguous: he declared that, in a personal capacity, he could only vote for Giscard, but he did not make any explicit recommendation in that regard to his voters.

Presidency (1981-1995)

First term (1981-1988)

Mitterrand in 1981 together with Alain Bombard

On May 21, 1981, the new president's seven-year term began with a ceremony at the Pantheon. He named his first government, which would be led by Pierre Mauroy. The next day, taking advantage of the favorable current of opinion, he dissolved Parliament. The elections gave him an absolute majority. A second government headed by Pierre Mauroy had four communist ministers.

Many reforms of a social nature were proposed and the field of radio and television was liberalized, giving rise, among other things, to the creation of Canal+ in 1984, the first private channel in the country; from Radio France International; and regional radios through Radio-France. A tax was also created that levied great fortunes and that will have a hazardous life, with various eliminations and reintroductions.

In the social field, the minimum wage and family assistance were significantly increased, and undocumented immigrants were massively regularized, to favor their insertion into the labor market. A fifth week of paid vacation is established, the 39-hour work week was regulated and the retirement age was brought forward to 60 years. In relation to civil rights, the death penalty was repealed.

In economic aspects, this first mandate was characterized at first by a few nationalizations, among which some banks stand out —only Paribas among the important ones— and some industrial groups such as Rhône-Poulenc, Saint-Gobain, Thomson) and the Suez industrial group. An inflation control policy was also followed. There was a significant increase in unemployment and the public deficit and unpopular measures were taken: in the North most of the coal mines were closed or reconverted, which increased social discontent.

Several social measures were ratified, such as the official decriminalization of homosexuality. Home Secretary Gaston Defferre ended homosexual registration, and Communist Health Minister Jack Ralite removed homosexuality from the list of mental disorders. The government also introduced the passing of the sexual age of majority to 15 years for all, abolishing the distinction, introduced in 1942, in the age of consent between homosexual and heterosexual relations. The homosexual lifestyle is no longer a cancellation clause in a housing rental contract.

Internationally, complications posed for France on the other side of the world: a new statute was established for French Polynesia, but it was forced to face bloody riots in New Caledonia. In addition, a military intelligence operation against Greenpeace ended with the discovery of the government's involvement in the attack—with the death of the Dutch photographer Fernando Pereira—on the Rainbow Warrior, which greatly undermined France's international prestige. In the cultural field, the first international summit of la Francophonie was held and the new Musée d'Orsay was inaugurated in Paris.

Politically, a timid administrative decentralization began, although the most significant thing is that a racist and xenophobic party appeared with force: the National Front led by Jean-Marie Le Pen and which will obtain spectacular results in the European elections. The replacement at the head of the Mauroy government presidency by Laurent Fabius ended the presence of communist ministers in the government. The mandate ended with the first cohabitation of the Fifth Republic and the change of the majority electoral system for a proportional one.

In the legislative elections held in March 1986, the first in which the proportional system was used, the coalition of conservative forces (RPR-UDF) clearly triumphed in March 1986. The far-right National Front obtained, thanks to to the proportional system, 35 deputies. The government came to be chaired by Jacques Chirac. For the first time, a president of the left-wing Republic had to "cohabit" with a right-wing government. Some of the state-owned companies were reprivatized and others, such as the television channel TF1, went into the private sector for the first time.

But the Chirac government also had to face serious problems. At the end of 1986, French students demonstrated against the "Devaquet law" that sought to reform the University. France momentarily broke diplomatic relations with Iran after suspicions that that government could be involved in the terrorist attacks that took place in Paris. In New Caledonia, the referendum boycotted by the independentistas of the FLNKS (40% abstention) left 98.3% of votes in favor of continuing to remain in France. But a short time later a terrorist attack, in Canaco, ended with six members of the French forces and nineteen dead independentistas. In the cultural field, the Arab World Institute and the Louvre pyramid were inaugurated.

Second term (1988-1995)

Despite being aware since November 1981 that he had prostate cancer, Mitterrand announced his candidacy for a second seven-year term on March 22, 1988. On May 8, he was re-elected in the presidential election against Jacques Chirac with 54% of the vote, assuming his second term on May 21, 1988.

As prime minister he appointed his previous rival, Michel Rocard, and dissolved the National Assembly. The socialist group and its allies obtained a relative majority, while the communists decided not to participate in the government, which was forced to seek support alternately between the communist group and the more moderate sectors of the opposition, especially in the Unión del Centro (UDC)., parliamentary group splinter of the UDF). In May 1991, he replaced Michel Rocard with Édith Cresson, whose public image deteriorated with unfortunate statements, and this was followed ten months later by Pierre Bérégovoy. The right wing amply triumphed in the 1993 legislative elections. The socialist group and its allies won 67 seats and Mitterrand entrusted Édouard Balladur with the task of forming a government. After the suicide of Pierre Bérégovoy (May 1), Mitterrand made a harsh attack on the media at his funeral, censuring those who "threw a man's honor to the dogs."

George H. W. Bush and Mitterrand in 1989

During that second term, the bicentennial of the French Revolution was celebrated with events that included the participation of the main world figures in the political, social and cultural fields. On the occasion of this bicentennial, the Louvre Museum was renovated and the Bastille Opera House and the Defense Arch were created.

In the social field, the most significant thing was the establishment of a minimum insertion income with the aim of ensuring the survival even of those who do not work or have the right to unemployment insurance. The length of military service was also reduced to 10 months.

His tenure began with the Matignon Accords which, together with an amnesty law, restored social peace in New Caledonia. Also Córcega obtained a new statute. Militarily, France participated in the second Gulf War (1990-1991) and in an operation aimed at trying to stop the genocide in Rwanda, although Mitterrand had supported the Rwandan government knowing that it was carrying out the extermination. The referendum on the Maastricht treaty —which was approved by a slim majority— and the express French support for the German reunification process gave new impetus to the construction of Europe.

President Mitterrand was also targeted by the press and details of his private life emerged: data was discovered about his relations with the extreme right and the collaborationist Vichy government during his youth, details about his illness were revealed and it was learned of the existence of an extramarital daughter, Mazarine Pingeot.

President François Mitterrand, shortly before the end of his second term, described Franco-American relations as much more bellicose than they appear: "France does not know it, but we are at war with America. Yes, a permanent war, a vital war, an economic war, a war without death, apparently. Yes, the Americans are very tough, they are voracious, they want undivided power over the world. It is an unknown war, a permanent war, apparently without death and yet a war to the death.

End of term and death

On May 7, 1995, Jacques Chirac won the presidential election against the socialist Lionel Jospin. François Mitterrand finished his second term.

He died on January 8, 1996 of prostate cancer. His burial represented a great tribute by the French. He was buried in the Jarnac family vault, in the Charente department.

The book Interrupted Memories recounts the last two years in the politician's life based on conversations with Georges-Marc Benamou. Subsequently, the film based on this novel entitled President Mitterrand (The Walker on the Champ de Mars), directed by Robert Guédiguian and in which Michel Bouquet plays the president.

Family

From his marriage to Danielle Gouze he had two children:

• Jean-Christophe, former advisor to the president for African affairs.
• Gilbert, mayor of Libourne, former deputy of the department of Gironde.

On his relationship with Anne Pingeot:

• a daughter, Mazarine Pingeot, born on December 18, 1974 in Avignon.

Speeches

• Wikisource in French contains original works of or about Address by François Mitterrand of 1987.
• Wikisource in French contains original works of or about Address by François Mitterrand of 1988.
• Wikisource in French contains original works of or about Address by François Mitterrand of 1995.

Prime ministers during the presidency of François Mitterrand