Francois Mitterrand (26 October 1916 – 8 January 1996) was President of France from 21 May 1981 to 17 May 1995, succeeding Valery Giscard d'Estaing and preceding Jacques Chirac. Mitterand was the first leftist to be elected President of France under the fifth republic, representing the social democratic Socialist Party of France, which grew to become one of the largest parties in the country after his tenure ended.
Biography[]
Francois Mitterrand was born in Jarnac, Aquitaine, France on 26 October 1916, and he studied at the College Saint-Paul from 1925 to 1934; he was a member of the fascist Cross of Fire party as a youth, and he would hold conservative views until he was captured while serving in the French Army during World War II. He would later escape and build up a network of the French Resistance among former prisoners of war in Vichy France, and he entere politics following the war's end. Mitterrand became a leftist (albeit anti-communist) politician during the 1950s, and he served as Minister of the Interior under the government of Prime Minister Pierre Mendes France. As a leftist politician in France, he supported Algeria's status as a French colony, and he claimed that "Algeria is France" in a famous speech given during the Algerian War. In 1958, he lost his seat in the government after the Gaullist regime of Charles de Gaulle came to power, and he decided to rally leftist forces against the Gaullist government. In the May 68 protests in the summer of 1968, Mitterrand led leftists in strikes and protests against the government of Charles de Gaulle, and he became the leader of the social democratic Socialist Party of France in 1971. The alliance between communists and socialists in the government had fallen apart by this point, and the Socialist Party surpassed the French Communist Party as the largest leftist party in the country.
On 10 May 1981, Mitterrand was elected President of France, the first leftist leader of the Fifth Republic. He increased the minimum wage by 10%, instituted a 39-hour work week, a total of five vacation weeks per year, the creation of a solidarity tax on the wealthy, increased social benefits, and allowed for workers to consult with their employers. Housing and healthcare improved under Mitterrand, and French Army soldiers were paid more money for their service, major improvements in France's infrastructure. In addition, Mitterrand abolished the death penalty and increased the rights given to immigrants, and he ensured that divorced women would be given assistance that they lacked due to their separation from their husbands. During the 1980s, Mitterrand kept his conservative opponents in check by inviting them into coalition governments with him, nicknamed "cohabitation" governments. His prime minister, Jacques Chirac, failed to reverse the solidarity tax, and Mitterand pushed further by outlawing hate speech and Holocaust denial. In 1993, Mitterrand also built a memorial at Frejus to commemorate the victims of the Algerian War. Mitterrand would be conservative on some issues, as he opposed the USSR and took part in the 1991 Gulf War, although he opposed the independence of Croatia and Slovenia during the breakup of Yugoslavia and opposed the reunification of Germany. On 17 May 1995, he left office as Prime Minister of France, and he died of prostate cancer on 8 January 1996 at the age of 79, having concealed the illness for years.