Everything about Fran Ois Mitterand totally explained
(
October 26,
1916 –
January 8,
1996) served as
President of France from 1981 to 1995, elected as representative of the
Socialist Party (PS). First elected during the
May 1981 presidential election, he became the first socialist president of the
Fifth Republic and the first left-wing head of state since 1957. He was
re-elected in 1988 and held office until 1995, before dying of
prostate cancer the following year. During each of his two terms, he dissolved the Parliament after his election to have a majority during the first five years of his term, and then each time his party lost the next legislative elections. He was consequently forced to "
cohabit" during the two last years of each of his terms with conservative cabinets. They were led by
Jacques Chirac from 1986 until 1988, and
Édouard Balladur from 1993 to 1995.
As of 2008 he holds the record of longest serving (14 years) President of
France. He is also the oldest President of the
Fifth Republic, leaving office at the age of 78. He died on
January 8,
1996, shortly after returning from a Christmas holiday in Egypt.
Early life
Mitterrand was born in
Jarnac,
Charente, in a
devout and
conservative Roman Catholic family. His father, Joseph Gilbert Félix, first worked as agent of a railroad company, then
vinegar maker and later served as President of the federation of vinegar maker trade-unions, whose maternal grandmother was a noblewoman, still descendant of Kings
Fernando III of Castile and
Jean de Brienne of Jerusalem. His mother was Marie Gabrielle Yvonne Lorrain, and a remote niece of
Pope John XXII. He had three brothers (Robert, Jacques and Philippe) and four sisters. His wife,
Danielle Mitterrand, has engaged herself in various left-wing causes. The Mitterrands, married in 1944, had three sons: Pascal (
10 June 1945 -
17 September 1945),
Jean-Christophe, born in 1946, and Gilbert Mitterrand, born on
4 February 1949. He also had a daughter,
Mazarine Pingeot. His nephew
Frédéric Mitterrand is a journalist (and supporter of right-wing
Jacques Chirac, former president of France), and his brother-in-law
Roger Hanin is a well-known actor.
Mitterrand studied from 1925 to 1934 in
Angoulême, where he became member of the
JEC, the student organisation of
Action catholique. Arriving in
Paris in autumn 1934, he then went to the
École Libre des Sciences Politiques until 1937. Mitterrand took membership for about a year in the
Volontaires nationaux (National Volunteers), an organization related to
François de la Rocque's far right league, the
Croix de Feu — the league had just participated in the
February 6, 1934 riots which led to the fall of the second
Cartel des Gauches (Left-Wing Coalition).. Contrary to what has been said, he never took his card at the
Parti Social Français (PSF) which succeeded to the Croix de Feu and may be considered as the first French right-wing mass party. In a logical way for his then-nationalist ideas, he was disturbed by
Nazi expansionism during the
Anschluss.
Mitterrand then served his
conscription term in the colonial troops, from 1937 to 1939. In 1938, he became the best friend of
Georges Dayan, a Jewish socialist, after having left the aggressions of the national-royalist movement
Action française. Finishing his law studies, he was sent to the
Maginot line in September 1939, with the rank of Sergeant-chief (infantry sergeant), near
Montmédy. He became engaged to Marie-Louise Terrasse (future
Catherine Langeais) in May 1940 (but she broke it off in January 1942).
Second World War
Mitterrand enlisted in the French army during
World War II. He fought as an infantry sergeant, was wounded and was taken
prisoner of war (POW) in
1940. His political views evolved as he met POWs from all kinds of social backgrounds. He escaped from German captivity 6 times within 18 months, arriving home (which was in the zone not occupied by the German forces, but rather in the zone of the French collaborationist
Vichy government) in December 1941. He then became a mid-level functionary of the Vichy government, in the POW welcome service, which was very unusual for an escaped prisoner, but he later claimed to have served as a spy for the
Free French Forces.
In 1943 he received the
Francisque, the honorific distinction of the Vichy regime. When Mitterrand's Vichy past was exposed in the
1950s, he initially denied having received the Francisque.
In late 1942 the non-occupied zone was invaded by Germans. Then, in January 1943, Mitterrand left Vichy after the dismissal of
Maurice Pinot, the leader of its service. When Germany began losing the war, Mitterrand set about building up a resistance network, composed mainly of former POWs like himself. 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.
Giraud was then contesting the leadership of the
French Resistance with
General de Gaulle. Mitterrand himself clashed with
Michel Cailliau (aka "Charette"), de Gaulle's nephew who led another former POWs network.
In November 1943 the
Gestapo raided a flat in
Vichy where they hoped to arrest a resister called François Morland. "Morland" was Mitterrand's cover name. The man they arrested was
Pol Pilven, a resister 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.
From there he went to
Algiers, where he met
Charles de Gaulle, who was now the uncontested leader of the Free French. The two men didn't get along; Mitterrand refused to merge his group with other POW movements if Cailliau was to be the leader.
He later returned to France via England by boat. 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 déportés or MNPGD). Mitterrand took the lead.
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!" Mitterrand was dismissed 15 days later.
Fourth Republic
After the war he 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 républicaines or RGR) in the Western suburb of
Paris, but he failed to be elected deputy. The RGR was an electoral entity composed of the
Radical Party, the centerist
Democratic and Socialist Union of the Resistance (
Union démocratique et socialiste de la Résistance or UDSR) and several conservative groupings. It opposed to 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 in the
Nièvre département. To be elected, he'd 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 then 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).
In May 1948 Mitterrand participated, together with
Konrad Adenauer,
Winston Churchill,
Harold Macmillan,
Paul-Henri Spaak,
Albert Coppé and
Altiero Spinelli, in the
Congress of The Hague, which originated the European Movement.
As Overseas Minister (1950-1951), he opposed the colonial lobby to propose a reform programme. 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
René Pleven.
As
Interior Minister in
Pierre Mendès-France's cabinet (1954-1955), he was faced with the launching of the
Algerian War of Independence. He claimed: "Algeria is France." He was also suspected of being the informer of the Communist Party in the cabinet. This rumour 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 (1956-1957), he allowed the expansion of martial law in the Algerian conflict. Unlike other ministers (including Mendès-France), who criticized the repressive policy in Algeria, he remained in
Guy Mollet's cabinet until its end.
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.
Fifth Republic and 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 Mendès-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
SFIO Socialist Party refused to withdraw its candidate. This division caused the election of the
Gaullist candidate. One year later, he was
elected to represent
Nièvre in the
Senate, where he was part of the
Group of the Democratic Left. At the same time, he wasn't admitted to the ranks of the
Unified Socialist Party (
Parti socialiste unifié, PSU) which was created by Mendès-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. The incident brought him a great deal of publicity, initially boosting his political ambitions. Some of his critics claimed that he'd staged the incident himself, resulting in a backlash against Mitterrand. He said he was victim of a plot and accused Prime Minister
Michel Debré to be its instigator. Prosecution was initiated against Mitterrand but was later dropped.
In
1962, he regained his seat in the National Assembly with the support of the PCF and the SFIO. Practicing left unity in Nievre, 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 President (chairman) of the General Council of Nièvre. While the opposition to De Gaulle organized in clubs, he founded his own group, the
Convention of Republican Institutions (
Convention des institutions républicaines or CIR). He reinforced his position as a left-wing opponent to
Charles de Gaulle in publishing
Le Coup d'État 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 defense, etc.
1965 presidential election and aftermath
In 1965, he 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
SFIO,
PCF,
PR and
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 into the SFIO, from running for the presidency. Furthemore, Mitterrand was an a lone man so he didn't appeared as a danger for the left-wing parties' staff.
De Gaulle was expected to win in the first round, but Mitterrand got 31.72% 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, who defended
Raoul Salan, one of the four Generals who had organized the 1961
Algiers putsch during the
Algerian War.
Mitterrand gained 44.8% of votes in the second round and de Gaulle was thus elected for another term, but this defeat was regarded as honourable, for no one was expected to beat de Gaulle. He took the lead of a center-left alliance: the
Federation of the Democratic and Socialist Left (
Fédération de la gauche démocrate 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 favored 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 before 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 Center of Duhamel got 7% of votes. But with 38% of votes, de Gaulle's
Union for the Fifth Republic remained the leading French party .
During the
May 1968 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-Elysées, de Gaulle dissolved the Assembly and called for a legislative election instead. In
this election, the right won their biggest majority since the
Bloc National in 1919.
Mitterrand was accused of being responsible for this defeat and the FGDS split. In 1969, he couldn't run for the presidency:
Guy Mollet refused to give him the support of the SFIO. The left was eliminated in the first round, with the Socialist candidate Gaston Defferre winning a humiliating five percent of the vote.
Georges Pompidou faced centrist
Alain Poher in the
second round.
Socialist Party leader
After the FGDS implosion, he turned to the
Socialist Party (
Parti socialiste or PS). Indeed, 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 first secretary of the PS.
In June 1972 he 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 obtained 43.20% of the vote in the first round, as common candidate of the Left. He then faced
Valéry Giscard d'Estaing in the second round. During the 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 scoring (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. Whilst the Socialists took the leading role in the left, in 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 PS for 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 wasn't 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, and denounced the performance of the incumbent president. Furthemore, 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 (1st term)
Home policy
In the
French Presidential Election of 1981 he became the first socialist President of the Fifth Republic, and his government became the first left-winged government in 23 years. He named
Pierre Mauroy as Prime Minister and organized a new
legislative election. The Socialists obtained an absolute parliamentary majority. Four Communists joined the cabinet.
The beginning of his first term was marked by left-wing
economic policy, based on the
110 Propositions for France and the 1972
Common Program between the Socialist Party, the
Communist Party and the
Left Radical Party. This included several
nationalizations, a 10% increase of the
minimum wage (
SMIC), a 39 hour work week, 5 weeks
holiday per year, the creation of the
solidarity tax on wealth, an increase of 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). But unemployment continued to grow and three devaluations of the
Franc were decided upon. This policy more or less came to an end with the March 1983
liberal turn. Priority was given to the struggle against inflation in order to remain competitive in the
European Monetary System.
With respect to social and cultural policies, he 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 sûreté, a special high court and enacted a massive regularization of
illegal aliens. He passed the first
decentralizations laws (
Defferre Act) and
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.
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. The Communists left the cabinet.
Rainbow Warrior bombing
The
Rainbow Warrior, a
Greenpeace vessel, was in New Zealand preparing to protest against French nuclear testing in the South Pacific, when an explosion sank the ship, with photographer
Fernando Pereira drowning as he tried to retrieve his equipment. The New Zealand government called the bombing the first terrorist attack in the country. In mid-1985, Defense Minister
Charles Hernu was forced to resign after the discovery of the French implication in the attack against the
Rainbow Warrior.
Twenty years after the incident it emerged that Mitterrand personally sanctioned the bombing of the Greenpeace ship, confirmed by Admiral Pierre Lacoste, the former head of the
DGSE.
Cohabitation (1986-1988)
Before the
1986 legislative campaign,
proportional representation was instituted in accordance with the 110 Propositions. It didn't prevent, however, the victory of the
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".
Chirac handled mostly domestic policy while Mitterrand concentrated on his "reserved domain": foreign affairs and defense. However, several conflicts opposed the two heads of the executive power. In this, Mitterrand refused to sign decrees of liberalization, obligating Chirac to pass by the parliamentary way. He supported covertly the social movements, notably the student revolt against the university reform (
Devaquet Bill) . Benefiting from the difficulties of Chirac's cabinet, his popularity increased.
The polls being positive for him, he announced his candidacy in the
1988 presidential election. He proposed a moderate program (promising "neither nationalizations nor liberalization") and advocated a "united France". He obtained 34% of votes in the first round, then was opposed to Chirac in the second, and was re-elected with 54% of votes. Mitterrand was the first President to be elected twice by universal suffrage.
Presidency (2nd term)
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 center-right politicians joined the cabinet.
The second term was marked by the
Matignon Agreements concerning
New Caledonia, 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 reform of the
Common Agricultural Policy, the 1990
Gayssot Act on
hate speech and
Holocaust denial, the
Arpaillange Act on the financing of political parties, the reform of the
penal code and the
Evin Act on smoking in public places. Several large architectural works were pursued, with the building of the
Louvre Pyramid, the
Channel Tunnel, the
Grande Arche of the Defense, the
Bastille Opera, the Finance Ministry in
Bercy, the
National Library of France.
But the second term was also marked by the rivalries in 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 financing of the party, the
contaminated blood scandal which implicated Laurent Fabius and former ministers
Georgina Dufoix and
Emond Hervé, and the
Elysée wiretaps affairs.
Disappointed with Rocard's failure to enact the Socialists' programme, Mitterrand dismissed Rocard in 1991 and appointed
Edith Cresson to replace him. She was the first woman to become Prime Minister in France, but was forced to resign after the disaster of the 1992 regional elections. Her successor,
Pierre Bérégovoy promised to fight unemployment and corruption but he couldn't prevent the catastrophic defeat of the left in the
1993 legislative election. He committed suicide on
May 1,
1993.
On
16 February,
1993, president Mitterrand inaugurated in
Fréjus a Memorial of
Wars in Indochina.
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. Mitterrand was weakened by his cancer, the scandal about his past in Vichy, and the suicide of his friend
François de Grossouvre. His second and last term ended in
French presidential election, 1995 in May 1995 with the election of
Jacques Chirac. He died of prostate cancer at the age of 79.
Foreign policy
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. In no way did
France approach the
USSR, when Mitterrand made his visit to the USSR (in November 1988) the Soviet media could mark 'leaving aside the virtually wasted decade and the loss of Soviet-French 'special relations' of the Gaullist era'.
Mitterrand was worried by the rapidity of the Soviet block's collapse. He made a controversial visit to
East Germany after the fall of
Berlin wall. He was opposed to the quick recognition of
Croatia and
Slovenia, which he thought would lead to the
violent implosion of Yugoslavia.
France participated to the
Gulf War (1990-1991) with the
U.N. coalition.
European policy
His major achievements came internationally, especially in the
European Economic Community. He supported the enlargement of the Community to include
Spain and
Portugal (who 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.
1990 speech at La Baule
Responding to a democratic movement in Africa after the 1989 fall of the
Berlin Wall, he made his famous
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 included a
representative system, free
elections,
multipartyism,
freedom of the press, an independent judiciary, and abolition of
censorship. Recalling that France was the country making the most important effort concerning development aid, he announced that
Least Developed Countries (LDCs) would receive only donations (in order to stop the massive increase of the
Third World debt during the 1980s, and limited the
interest rate to 5% for intermediary countries (that is,
Côte d'Ivoire,
Congo,
Cameroon and
Gabon). In a clear allusion to the shady system known as
Françafrique, he also criticized interventionism in sovereign matters, which was according to him only another form of "
colonialism." However, according to Mitterrand, this didn't induce lesser concern of Paris for its
former colonies, Mitterrand hence continuing 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 discourse of La Baule, which marked a relative turning in France's policy concerning its former colonies, has been compared with the 1956
loi-cadre Defferre which was responding to
anti-colonialist feelings. However, African heads of state themselves reacted at most with indifference.
Omar Bongo, President of Gabon, declared that he rather had "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,
Hissène Habré (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
IMF and the
World Bank's "
structural adjustment programs."
Hassan II, the former 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." All in all, the La Baule speeech 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"
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. This was an extraordinary event, which ignored scientific realities and was the first time a biological controversy had to be resolved at such an elevated political level. Clearly, Mitterrand and Reagan felt that this wasn't an issue for the two nations to fall out over.
Co-prince of Andorra
On
2 February 1993, in his capacity as co-prince of
Andorra, Mitterrand and
Joan Martí 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.
List of prime ministers during Mitterrand's presidency
Scandals and controversies of Mitterrand's presidency and death
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.
Mitterrand came under fire in 1992 when it was revealed that he'd arranged for the laying of a wreath of flowers on the grave of
Philippe Pétain each Armistice Day since 1987. The placing of such a wreath wasn't without precedent: Presidents
Charles de Gaulle and
Valéry Giscard d'Estaing had wreaths placed on Pétain's grave to commemorate the 50th and 60th anniversaries of the end of World War I. Pétain 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 to Germany in World War II, collaborating with Nazi Germany and putting anti-semitic measures into place.
Similarly, President
Georges Pompidou had a wreath placed in 1973 when Pétain's remains were returned to the
Ile d'Yeu after being stolen. But Mitterrand's annual tributes marked a departure from those of his predecessors, 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.
Mazarine
Mitterrand had numerous extramarital affairs, one of which was with mistress
Anne Pingeot; they'd a daughter,
Mazarine. Mitterrand sought secrecy on that issue, which lasted until November 1994, when Mitterrand's failing health and impending retirement meant he could no longer count on the fear and respect he'd once engendered among French journalists. Also, Mazarine, a college student, had reached an age where her identity could no longer be protected as a minor.
Wiretaps
From 1982 to 1986, Mitterrand established an "anti-terror cell" installed as a service of the President of the Republic. This was a fairly unusual set-up, since such law enforcement missions against terrorism are normally left to the
French National Police and
Gendarmerie, run under the cabinet and the Prime Minister, and under the supervision of the judiciary. The cell was largely made from members of these services, but it bypassed the normal line of command and safeguards.
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, especially those who may have revealed the situation of Mazarine and her mother. The illegal wiretapping was revealed in 1993 by
Libération; the case against members of the cells went to trial in November 2004.
Rwanda
Paris assisted
Rwanda's president
Juvénal Habyarimana, who was assassinated on
April 6,
1994. 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 9000 men in October 1990 to 28000 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
Opération Turquoise, a military operation carried out under a
United Nations (UN) mandate. The operation is currently the object of political and historical debate.
Grossouvre's suicide
Roger-Patrice Pelat, who had died naturally in 1989, was also one of Mitterrand's closest friends; one of the few people who could address him in the familiar ("tu") rather than the formal ("vous") way of the French language. They had first met in a POW camp in Germany and Pelat had been Mitterrand's best man. Pelat had the free run of the Elysée Palace, and even on one occasion walked into Mitterrand's office when he was having a private conversation with Soviet leader
Mikhail Gorbachev. According to pamphletist
Jean Montaldo, the latter was astonished when Mitterrand simply introduced Pelat to him as a close friend. Pelat died of a heart attack shortly after the opening of a judiciary investigation into his affairs on charges of insider dealing.
On
7 April,
1994 the body of
François de Grossouvre was found in his office at the Elysée, with two bullets in his head. Grossouvre had been Mitterrand's friend and confidant for over 40 years. Working in the President's shadow, he was deeply involved in the most secret affairs of state, foreign policy and family. He was also the godfather of
Mazarine Pingeot, Mitterrand's illegitimate daughter. Officially de Grossouvre's death was declared a suicide.
Suicide of Pierre Bérégovoy
In 2008 in the french TV appeared an inquiry report for Mitterand’s last Prime Minister
Pierre Bérégovoy suicide (1/5/93), supposedly due to depression. There have been many inconsistencies between the official police reports and those from people close to the scene who reported having heard two shots. The external signs on the body featured a small hole in his front head side supposedly done by his guard's Magnum 357 gun, able however to blow away half of his head if fired at. There was also no full investigation report provided to the Bérégovoy family. Bérégovoy's personal agenda had also disappeared where the names of people to meet on the day of his death were displayed. The same inquiry made references to Mitterand’s intimate friend Roger-Patrice Pelat involved in a number of secret economic affairs and some more recent ones that Bérégovoy was aware of. One writer published a book denying that Bérégovoy had any reason or had shown any signs to intend to commit suicide this very date.
The bombing of the Rainbow Warrior and murder of Fernando Pereira
On the twentieth anniversary of the
sinking of the Rainbow Warrior, a
Greenpeace ship harboured in New Zealand, it was revealed that the French president François Mitterrand had personally authorised the bombing which resulted in the death of
Fernando Pereira. Admiral Pierre Lacoste 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 record made at the preliminary hearing where two French agents pleaded guilty.
Political offices held by Mitterrand
Fourth Republic
Fifth Republic
Mayor of Château-Chinon (1959-1981)
Senator for the Nièvre département (1959-1962)
Deputy for the Nièvre département (1962, 1978-1981)
President of the General Council of Nièvre (1964-1981)
President of the Democratic and Socialist Federation of the Left (1965-1968)
First Secretary of the French Socialist Party (1971-1981)
President of the Republic (1981-1995)Further Information
Get more info on 'Fran Ois Mitterand'.
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