When
François
Mitterrand
won
the
presidential
elections
over
Giscard
in
1981,
he
embodied
all
the
hopes
of
a
generation
of
Socialists
who
had
never
seen
their
party
in
power.
Headed
by
Pierre
Mauroy
as
prime
minister
and
including
four
Communist
ministers,
the
Socialists
'
first
government
after
23
years
in
opposition
started
off
bright,
popular
and
optimistic.
It
was
committed
to
an
increase
in
state
control
over
industry,
high
taxation
for
the
rich,
more
power
to
local
government,
a
public
spending
programme
to
raise
the
living
standards
of
the
least
well-off
and
support
for
liberation
struggles
around
the
world.
For
Mitterrand,
European
integration
was
of
great
importance
-
France
was
after
all,
one
of
the
founder
members
of
the
EEC
-
but
was
a
primarily
political
rather
than
economic
project,
to
ensure
peace
and
security
and
to
create
a
counterweight
to
American
hegemony.
By
1984,
however,
the
flight
of
capital,
inflation
and
budget
deficits
had
forced
a
complete
volte-face.
The
new
prime
minister,
Laurent
Fabius
,
presided
over
a
cabinet
of
centrist
to
conservative
"socialist"
ministers,
clinging
desperately
to
power.
Their
1986
election
slogan
was
"Help
-
the
Right
is
coming
back",
a
bizarrely
self-fulfilling
message.
The
Socialist
government
had
lifted
the
ban
on
immigrants
forming
their
own
organizations,
given
a
ten-year
automatic
renewal
of
permits
and
even
promised
voting
rights.
Able
to
organize
for
the
first
time,
immigrant
workers
staged
protests
at
the
racist
basis
of
lay-offs
in
the
major
industries.
The
Front
National
responded
with
the
age-old
bogey
of
foreigners
taking
jobs
from
the
French;
the
Gaullists
joined
in
with
the
spectre
of
falling
birth
rates
(a
French
obsession
since
1945);
and
both
benefited
in
the
1986
elections.
With
a
clear
right-wing
majority
in
parliament,
Mitterrand
appointed
Jacques
Chirac
as
prime
minister,
so
beginning
cohabitation
-
the
head
of
state
and
head
of
government
belonging
to
opposite
sides
of
the
political
fence.
Although
throughout
1987
the
chances
of
Mitterrand's
winning
the
presidential
election
in
1988
seemed
very
slim,
Chirac's
economic
policies
of
privatization
and
monetary
control
failed
to
deliver
the
goods.
He
not
only
reversed
the
preceding
socialist
nationalizations,
but
also
sold
off
banks
and
industries
that
de
Gaulle
had
taken
into
the
public
sector
after
1945.
Unemployment
rose
steadily,
and
Chirac
made
the
fatal
mistake
of
flirting
with
the
extreme
Right.
As
prime
minister,
Chirac
instituted
a
series
of
anti-immigration
laws
that
were
jointly
condemned
by
the
Archbishop
of
Lyon
and
the
head
of
the
Muslim
Institute
in
Paris.
Several
leading
politicians
in
the
government's
coalition
partners,
including
Simone
Weil
,
a
concentration-camp
survivor,
denounced
Chirac's
concessions
to
Le
Pen
and
human
rights
groups.
Churches
and
trade
unions
joined
immigrants'
groups
in
saying
that
France
was
on
its
way
to
becoming
a
police
state.
Mitterrand,
the
grand
old
man
of
politics,
with
decades
of
experience,
played
off
all
the
groupings
of
the
Right
in
an
all-but-flawless
campaign
and
won
another
mandate.
Mitterrand's
party,
however,
failed
to
win
an
absolute
majority
in
the
parliamentary
elections
soon
afterwards.
The
austerity
measures
of
his
new
prime
minister,
Michel
Rocard
,
upset
traditional
Socialist
supporters
in
the
public-service
sector.
He
ruled
out
renationalization
and
allowed
partial
privatizations.
Subsidies
to
large
state-owned
firms
continued,
but
there
was
no
coherent
industrial
strategy.
Though
Chirac's
programmes
were
halted,
they
were
not
reversed.
Strikes
failed
to
halt
lay-offs
in
the
mines,
shipyards,
transport
and
the
denationalized
industries.
On
returning
to
power,
the
Socialists
also
played
electoral
games
with
the
immigration
issue,
reneged
on
the
vote
promise
and
failed
to
tackle
the
social
and
economic
deprivation
of
France's
immigrant
ghettos.
Polls
showed
over
two-thirds
of
the
adult
French
population
to
be
in
favour
of
deporting
legal
immigrants
for
any
criminal
offence
or
for
being
unemployed
for
over
a
year.
Le
Pen's
proposals
that
immigrants
should
have
second-class
citizenship,
segregated
education
and
separate
social
security
also
received
widespread
support.
The
1980s
ended
with
the
most
absurd
blow-out
of
public
funds
ever
-
the
bicentennial
celebrations
of
the
French
Revolution
.
They
symbolized
a
culture
industry
spinning
mindlessly
around
the
vacuum
at
the
centre
of
the
French
vision
for
the
future.
And
they
highlighted
the
contrast
between
the
unemployed
and
homeless
begging
on
the
streets
and
the
limitless
cash
available
for
prestige
projects.
In
1991,
Mitterrand
sacked
Michel
Rocard
and
appointed
Édith
Cresson
as
France's
first
woman
prime
minister.
Her
brand
of
left-wing
nationalist
rhetoric
combined
with
centrist
pragmatism
made
her
highly
unpopular
at
home
and
abroad.
Furthermore,
she
jumped
on
the
rampant
racism
bandwagon
and
said
that
special
planes
should
be
chartered
to
deport
illegal
immigrants.
Kofi
Yamgname,
the
minister
for
integration
and
only
black
member
of
the
Socialist
cabinet,
suggested
that
immigrants
who
maintained
traditional
habits
should
go
home.
In
1992
the
International
Federation
of
Human
Rights
published
a
highly
critical
report
on
racism
in
the
French
police
force
and
said
France
"was
not
the
home
of
human
rights".
Ironically,
throughout
the
postwar
years,
France
has
maintained
an
independent
and
nationalist-oriented
foreign
policy
,
presenting
its
stance
as
a
combination
of
French
prestige
and
promotion
of
liberté,
égalité
and
fraternité
.
In
major
conflicts
France
always
tries
to
play
a
key
role
(and,
as
one
of
the
five
permanent
members
of
the
UN
Security
Council,
it
gets
a
say).
However,
high-profile
diplomacy
has
given
way
to
unprestigious
military
action,
as
in
the
Gulf
War
when
the
small
French
force
was
under
American
command.
Mitterrand's
visit,
under
gunfire,
to
Sarajevo
in
July
1992
was
universally
applauded,
yet
at
the
same
time
the
French
were
reluctant
to
commit
troops
for
UN
actions
in
former
Yugoslavia
.
The
important
Maastricht
referendum,
held
in
1992,
split
the
Right
and
widened
the
gulf
between
the
Socialists
and
Communists.
Only
the
extreme
end
of
the
political
spectrum,
the
Communists
and
the
Front
National
remained
determinedly
anti-Europe.
The
voters
divided
along
the
lines
of
the
poorer
rural
areas
voting
"No"
and
the
rich
urbanites
voting
"Yes".
The
very
narrow
margin
in
favour
was
a
considerable
disappointment
to
Mitterrand,
but
all
the
parties
suffered.
Scandals
over
cover-ups
and
corruption
that
had
erupted
under
Fabius
continued
to
dog
the
Socialists,
and
in
1992
Cresson
was
replaced
with
Pierre
Bérégovoy
.
He
survived
a
wave
of
strikes
by
farmers,
dockers,
car
workers
and
nurses,
but
then
news
broke
of
a
private
loan
from
a
friend
of
Mitterrand
accused
of
insider
dealing.
Mitterrand
distanced
himself
from
his
prime
minister,
the
Socialists
were
routed
in
the
1993
parliamentary
elections,
and
Bérégovoy
shot
himself
two
months
later,
on
May
Day,
leaving
no
note
of
explanation.
The
new
prime
minister,
Edouard
Balladur
,
a
fresh
and
fatherly
face
from
the
Right,
soon
lost
the
respect
of
his
natural
supporters
after
a
series
of
U-turns
following
demonstrations
by
Air
France
workers,
teachers,
farmers,
fishermen
and
school
pupils,
and
the
state's
rescue
of
the
Crédit
Lyonnais
bank
after
spectacular
losses.
Now
popularly
known
as
the
Débit
Lyonnais,
the
bank
had
to
be
bailed
out
to
the
tune
of
100
billion
FF
(or
£1000
per
taxpayer),
having
run
up
colossal
debts
through
dodgy
speculative
investments.
Blame
could
also
be
laid
at
the
Socialist
administration's
door
-
for
failing
to
appoint
competent
management
at
Crédit
Lyonnais.
The
change
in
government
in
1993
heralded
a
new
privatization
programme
and
ever
greater
reliance
on
market
forces
.
The
central
French
Bank
was
made
independent
in
1993;
many
now
say
it
takes
instructions
straight
from
the
Bundesbank.
As
in
Britain,
French
banks,
whether
private
or
public,
prefer
short-term
speculation
in
money
and
property
markets
rather
than
long-term
investment
in
industry.
Mitterrand
tottered
on
to
the
end
of
his
presidential
term,
looking
less
and
less
like
the
nation's
favourite
uncle.
Two
months
after
Bérégovoy's
suicide,
Réné
Bousquet,
head
of
police
in
the
Vichy
government
and
responsible
for
the
rounding
up
of
Jews
in
1942,
was
murdered.
A
personal
friend
of
Mitterrand's,
he
was
thought
to
have
carried
shady
secrets
about
the
president
to
his
grave.
On
the
twentieth
anniversary
of
President
Pompidou's
death
in
April
1994,
there
was
a
wave
of
nostalgia
for
a
time
when
"things
were
right
and
proper".
Allegations
of
corruption
against
mayors,
members
of
parliament,
ministers
and
leading
figures
in
industry
were
becoming
an
almost
weekly
occurrence.
In
1994
a
member
of
parliament
leading
a
crusade
against
drugs
and
corruption
on
the
Côte
d'Azur
was
assassinated.
Instead
of
increasing
democracy,
decentralization
appeared
to
have
licensed
fraud
and
nepotism
on
an
alarming
scale.
Several
mayors
ended
up
in
jail,
but
it
seemed
as
if
the
Paris
establishment
was
above
the
law.
Meanwhile,
France
continued
to
stay
outside
NATO
and
sustain
its
own
nuclear
arsenal
,
for
which
there
has
long
been
cross-party
consensus,
and
indeed
national
pride.
In
1994
both
sides
in
parliament
approved
huge
increases
in
defence
spending.
In
1994
a
group
of
intellectuals,
including
the
philosophers
Bernard-Henri
Lévy
and
André
Glucksmann,
ran
a
"Sarajevo"
campaign
to
put
Bosnia
at
the
centre
of
the
European
debate,
and
received
considerable
support.
By
1995
France
was
annoying
its
allies
by
taking
unilateral
action
and
accusing
Britain
and
the
US
of
Munich-style
appeasement.
In
1994,
France
sent
troops
into
Rwanda
,
whose
previous
murderous
government
they
had
supported
and
armed.
French
troops
were
accused
of
giving
protection
to
French-speaking
Hutus
responsible
for
the
genocide,
and
of
acting
too
late
to
save
any
of
the
English-speaking
Tutsis.
The
policy
backfired
with
the
new
regime
in
Rwanda
taking
an
anti-French
line
and
the
unresolved
conflicts
spreading
to
the
neighbouring
former
French
colony,
Zaire.
The
fragmentation
of
the
parties
in
the
1994
European
elections
saw
the
RPR/UDF
lose
votes
to
the
anti-Europeans
whilst
the
maverick
left-wing
crook
Bernard
Tapie
took
votes
from
the
PS,
which
seemed
to
be
in
terminal
decline.
In
1995,
with
Mitterrand
dying
from
cancer
but
refusing
to
step
down
before
the
end
of
his
term,
revelations
surfaced
about
his
war
record
as
an
official
in
the
Vichy
regime
before
he
joined
the
Resistance.
A
biography
of
Mitterrand,
Le
Grand
Secret
,
detailing
a
whole
host
of
scandals,
was
banned
in
France
but
avidly
read
on
the
Internet.
The
Socialist
Party
was
desperate
for
the
popular
Jacques
Delors
,
who,
as
chair
of
the
European
Commission,
saw
Europe
as
having
a
strong
social
dimension,
tackling
unemployment,
raising
living
standards,
regulating
the
free
play
of
global
market
forces
and
strengthening
human
rights,
to
stand
as
their
presidential
candidate
and
do
the
same
on
a
national
level.
Instead
they
had
to
make
do
with
Lionel
Jospin
,
the
rather
uncharismatic
former
education
minister,
who
performed
remarkably
well,
topping
the
poll
in
the
first
round
in
which
right-wing
votes
were
split
between
Balladur,
Chirac,
the
extremist
Le
Pen
(who
scored
15.5
percent)
and
the
anti-European
Philippe
de
Villiers.
Chirac
stole
the
Left's
clothes
by
placing
unemployment
and
social
exclusion
at
the
centre
of
his
manifesto,
and
heaped
promises
of
better
times
on
every
section
of
the
electorate.
He
won,
by
a
small
margin,
and
was
inaugurated
as
the
new
president
of
France
in
May
1995.
By
the
time
Mitterrand
finally
stepped
down,
he
had
been
the
French
head
of
state
for
fourteen
years,
presiding
over
two
Socialist
and
two
Gaullist
governments.
During
the
period
of
his
presidency,
official
unemployment
figures
passed
three
million,
crime
and
insecurity
rose,
and
increasing
numbers
of
people
found
themselves
excluded
from
society
by
racism,
poverty
and
homelessness.
Corruption
scandals
touched
the
president,
politicians
of
all
parties
and
business
chiefs;
terrorist
bombs
went
off
in
Paris;
and,
as
faith
in
old
left-wing
certainties
foundered,
support
for
extreme
Right
policies
propelled
the
Front
National
from
a
minority
faction
to
a
serious
electoral
force.
Despite
this,
when
he
died
in
January
1996,
Mitterrand
was
genuinely
mourned
as
a
man
of
culture
and
vision,
a
supreme
political
operator,
and
for
his
unwavering
commitment
to
the
vision
of
a
united
Europe
-
a
certainty
that
has
not
been
wholly
shared
by
the
succeeding
generation
of
French
politicians
or
by
the
French
people.
