First term: 1981–1988 and British Prime Minister
Thatcher, 1983 , 1984 In the
presidential election of 10 May 1981, François 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 in 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), but the stimulative fiscal policy implemented by the Mauroy government was in contradiction with the constrained
monetary policy implemented by the
Bank of France. However, unemployment continued to grow, 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. Also, between 1981 and 1983, the basic pension benefit for elderly poor persons was raised by 62.% Major efforts were made to improve access to housing and health care, while the government also attempted to tackle working-class under-achievement in schools by reinforcing the comprehensive system, modernising 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 subsidised 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 were taken. In addition, a new benefit was introduced for unemployed workers who had exhausted their eligibility for unemployment insurance. In December 1982, a law was passed that restored to workers the right to elect administrators to social security funds, which had been eliminated by Charles De Gaulle in 1967. Mitterrand continued to promote the new technologies initiated by his predecessor Valéry Giscard d'Estaing: the
TGV high-speed train and the
Minitel, a pre-World Wide Web interactive network similar to the web. The Minitel and the
Paris-Lyon TGV line were inaugurated only a few weeks after the election. In addition, Government grants and loans for capital investment for modernisation were significantly increased. François 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 François Mitterrand's presidency from 1983 onwards. Nevertheless, compared to the OECD average, fiscal policy in France remained relatively expansionary during the course of the two François Mitterrand presidencies.
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 the elderly stay at home instead of entering residential care. 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. 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 establishing 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 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 women’s employment and the impact of local social policies on family life. 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. In the field of education, more resources were devoted to the educational system, with the education budgets of 1982, 1983, and 1984 increasing 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. Authorization was restored for a number of advanced undergraduate and graduate programmes which the previous centre-right minister
Alice Saunier-Seité had rejected on grounds of economy and "rationalization" of resources. 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, while efforts by the Socialists to promote joint research between industry and the research agencies increased the number of such contracts by half each year between 1982 and 1985, with a 29% increase in joint patents. The baccalauréat professionnel, introduced in 1985, enabled holders of a Brevet d'études professionnelles (or in some cases of a Certificat d’aptitude professionnelle) to continue for another two years and study for the baccalauréat. Several measures were taken to put an end to the discrimination of homosexuals and repeal legal practices that repressed them. The Minister of the Interior,
Gaston Defferre, put an end to the registration of homosexuals, and the Communist
Jack Ralite, Minister of Health, removed homosexuality from the list of mental disorders. The government also introduced the passage of the sexual majority to 15 years for all, abolishing the distinction, introduced in 1942, in the age of consent between homosexual and heterosexual relations. Homosexual lifestyle ceased to be a clause for cancellation of a residential lease. Mitterrand abolished 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 immigrants. Tighter regulations on the powers of police to stop, search and arrest were introduced, and the "loi sécurité et liberté" (a controversial public order act) was repealed. In addition, the legal aid system was improved. 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 other’s debts. Childcare facilities were also expanded, with the number of places in crèches rising steadily between 1981 and 1986. 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 departments and the revamping of the Conservatoire National de la Musique at Lyon, while the range and capacity of performance facilities in Paris were 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.
First Cohabitation 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. François 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 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 liberalisation, obliging Chirac to pass the measures through parliament instead. François 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 favour, Mitterrand announced his candidacy in the
1988 presidential election. He proposed a moderate programme (promising "neither nationalisation nor privatization"), advocated a "united France," and laid out his policy priorities in his "Letter to the French People." 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.
Second term: 1988–1995 Domestic policy Following his re-election, he named
Michel Rocard as prime minister, despite 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; the Mermaz Law of 1989; the introduction of a private childcare allowance; the Urban Orientation Law of 1991; 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; and the 1989 Education Act which, amongst other measures, obliged local authorities to educate all children with disabilities. Several large architectural works were pursued, in what would become known as the
Grands Projets of François Mitterrand with the building of the
Louvre Pyramid, the
Channel Tunnel, the
Grande Arche at
La Défense, the
Bastille Opera, the Finance Ministry in
Bercy, and the
National Library of France. On 16 February 1993, President François Mitterrand inaugurated in
Fréjus 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 Hervé, and the Elysée wiretaps affairs.
Second Cohabitation Disappointed with Rocard's apparent failure to enact the Socialists' programme, Mitterrand dismissed Michel Rocard in 1991 and appointed
Édith Cresson to replace him. She was the first woman to become prime minister in France but proved a costly mistake due to her tendency to make acerbic and racist public remarks. After the Socialists experienced heavy losses in the 1992 regional elections, Cresson resigned from office. Her successor
Pierre Bérégovoy 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 95. 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
François 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. During his second term as president, however, the gap between rich and poor widened in France, with both unemployment and poverty rising in the wake of the economic recession of 1991–1993. According to other studies, though, the percentage of the French population living in poverty (based on various criteria) fell between the mid-Eighties and the mid-Nineties.
Foreign policy According to Wayne Northcutt, certain domestic circumstances helped shape Mitterrand's foreign policy in four ways: he needed to maintain a political consensus; he kept an eye on economic conditions; he believed in the nationalistic imperative for French policy; and he tried to exploit Gaullism and its heritage for political advantage.
East/West relations François Mitterrand supported closer European collaboration and the preservation of France's unique 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. 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. François Mitterrand also sharply criticized the
Soviet intervention in
Afghanistan as well as the country's nuclear weapons buildup. When François Mitterrand visited the USSR in November 1988, the Soviet media claimed to be 'leaving aside the virtually wasted decade and losing 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. 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 (1990–1991) with the
U.N. coalition.
European policy , 1987 He initially opposed further membership, fearing the Community was not ready and it would water it down to a free trade area. Mitterrand 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 his friend
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, and approved by just over 51% of the voters. British Prime Minister
Margaret Thatcher was against a
German reunification and also against the then discussed
Maastricht Treaty. When Kohl, then West German Chancellor, asked François Mitterrand to agree to reunification (France was one of the four Allies who had to agree to the
Two Plus Four-treaty), François 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 (including without talking to
Karl Otto Pöhl, then President of the Bundesbank). That year, he also established the
Mitterrand doctrine, a policy of not extraditing convicted far-left terrorists of the
years of lead such as
Cesare Battisti to
Italy, due to the alleged non-conformity of Italian legislation to European standards of rule of law, in particular the anti-terrorism laws passed by Italy in the 1970s and 1980s. When the
European Court of Human Rights finally ruled against the François Mitterrand doctrine, the policy had already led to most of the criminals never being punished for their crimes.
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 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 intermediate-income 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. African heads of state 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,
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
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." 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".
Discovery of HIV The 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 François 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 descendants of
Huguenots around the world. 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.
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. == Death ==