France's first Socialist president of the Fifth Republic began on the far right
François Mitterrand held the French presidency for fourteen years, longer than any republican head of state before him, as the Fifth Republic's first left-wing president. Yet he grew up in a devout conservative family, marched with nationalist students in the 1930s and served the Vichy regime before joining the Resistance.
Mitterrand arrived in the world on 26 October 1916 in Jarnac, in the Charente, son of a railway stationmaster, one of eight children in a strongly Catholic household. He studied at a Catholic college in Angoulême, then at the École Libre des Sciences Politiques in Paris until 1937. For about a year he belonged to the National Volunteers, linked to the far-right Croix de Feu league, wrote for a paper close to its successor party, and joined protests in 1935 and 1936, though claims that he formally joined that party are inaccurate.
His path bent leftward during the war. After working for Vichy in its early years he joined the Resistance, then held several ministerial posts in the Fourth Republic. He opposed de Gaulle's creation of the Fifth Republic, and though often isolated, he became the left's candidate in 1965 and 1974 before winning in 1981. Re-elected in 1988, he served until 1995.
His first term opened with nationalisations and a 39-hour working week, the abolition of the death penalty and an end to the state monopoly on radio and television. Economic strain soon pushed him towards austerity and market reforms. In 1985 he faced a storm after ordering the bombing of the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior in Auckland. In 1991 he made Édith Cresson France's first female prime minister, and twice he had to share power with conservative governments, under Jacques Chirac and then Édouard Balladur.
Abroad he largely continued Gaullist policy but embraced European integration, working with Helmut Kohl on the Maastricht Treaty and accepting German reunification. He oversaw the Socialist Party's rise to lead the left as the Communists declined. His private life held secrets, including a daughter, Mazarine, with his mistress Anne Pingeot, and prostate cancer hidden for most of his presidency. He died of it on 8 January 1996, less than eight months after leaving office.
Source: François Mitterrand
