François Mitterrand spent many years during the fourth republic fighting political battles with his arch enemy, Charles de Gaulle. Under the presidency of Giscard d'Estaing, as the election neared at the end of the seventies, scandals kept breaking out that undermined the right wing coalition that had ruled France for more than twenty years. As this slow disintegration of the right was unfolding, François Mitterrand had managed to take over the political reigns of the French socialist party.
An experienced politician, also a minister under many fourth republic governments, François Mitterrand had learned a lot about political survival. In fact he had begun his career as a civil servant under the collaboration government of Marshall Pétain but claimed to be an undercover résistant. History may judge otherwise, but the case is still open.
In may of 1981, France had elected a socialist president. The outgoing president, Valéry Giscard Destaing, so confounded by his political defeat, made his last speech on live television only to leave his desk before the end of the broadcast! In the following weeks, Mitterrand dissolved parliament and following elections saw the socialists and communists take 55 % of the seats. This was the beginning of a new political era.
The first government was led by Pierre Mauroy which launched an ambitious program of social reforms as most western governments were doing the opposite. The death penalty was abolished, independant radio broadcasting was permitted and decentralization became an important cornerstone of socialist policy.
Important increases were made to the welfare program, minimum wage was increased along with family allowances, subsidies and pensions. To pay for all these expenses, the socialists introduced important tax increases on large fortunes and wealthy estates.
However, optimism gave way as the economy got worse. The currency was devaluated several times, imports exceeded exports, oil prices were rising sharply. All this forced Mitterrand and Mauroy to impose new austerity measures.
By 1984, the Savary law, which wanted to impose closer control of private - catholic - education. The right wing opposition parties exploited this issue to the extreme. Although demonstrations in Paris attracted over a million people in favor of private education, this fight was more about choice than it was about religion. The government was forced to back down and withdraw the legislation.
During the same year, the socialists lost political capital during the european elections. The Communist party lost a lot of support and at the same time the extreme right wing party of Jean-Marie Le Pen made important headway gaining more than 11 % of the vote.
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