FRANCOIS MITTERRAND

Party and His Drive Toward The Presidency in 1981

In 1981 for the first time in the French Fifth Republic, a socialist government, led by Francois Mitterrand, was elected to office. This victory was indeed a significant political achievement when one considers that, little more than a decade earlier, the Socialist Party had managed to obtain only 5.1 percent of the vote. In just over one decade the Socialist Party had grown and united under the skilled and professional leadership of Francois Mitterrand.

In 1981 the socio-economic and political atmosphere was ripe for a socialist victory. The ruling right-wing-centrist coalition was deeply divided and fragmented. A bitter and politically damaging rivalry between Jacques Chirac and Giscard D'Estain had evolved and further exacerbated political divisions in the right wing. Economically, France in 1981 was in decline because of rising unemployment and inflation. The socialists provided an alternative mandate and a new vision for LA FRANCE.

Francois Mitterrand's leadership of the Socialist Party was critical to the expansion and ultimate victory of the party. Ironically, he formally became a Socialist only on the day he took over the party in 1971. When he became party leader, he worked to balance the left and make his party the dominant party of the left. In the late 1960's and well into the 1970's, Mitterrand had tried to expand party membership. It

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lf as the main candidate of the left and to make himself attractive to the centrist voters. He wanted to be seen as having the aspirations and interests of the entire French populace. Critics had claimed that in 1974 he had come across as "an intransigent Socialist." Mitterrand worked hard to brush away some of his negative credentials. He outlined a strong, independent and deeply anti-Soviet foreign policy agenda. He lashed out at D'Estaing for not being tough enough on the Soviets and chastised D'Estaing for visiting the Kremlin after the invasion of Afghanistan, calling this episode "a serious diplomatic blunder." Mitterrand also denounced Red Army maneuvers on the Polish border as a result of growing free trade union movement there. He deeply wanted to modernize France's independent nuclear weapons arsenal and continued to support France's independence from the U.S.-dominated North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Many centrists were indeed impressed by his tough stand on foreign policy; however, it was his domestic policies that centrists and most right-wingers found hard to swallow. It would take a person of considerable political skill to try to persuade much of France of the viability of many of Mitterand's do
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Approximate Word count = 2226
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page)

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