François Mitterrand

François Mitterrand was wounded and taken prisoner in 1940, escaped in 1941 and joined the Resistance from 1943. A deputy from 1946, he held several ministries under the Fourth Republic, including the Interior and Justice, and opposed de Gaulle's return to power in 1958. He forced de Gaulle into a runoff in 1965, rebuilt the Socialist Party at the Épinay congress of 1971 and narrowly lost to Valéry Giscard d'Estaing in 1974. Elected president in 1981 with 51.76 percent and re-elected in 1988, he served until 1995, including two periods of cohabitation with right-wing prime ministers. He died in January 1996.

Admirers credit Mitterrand with bringing the left to power after 23 years in opposition, abolishing capital punishment, decentralizing the state and, with Helmut Kohl, driving European integration toward the euro. Critics on the left saw the 1983 austerity turn as a betrayal, while the right blamed his early program for inflation and three devaluations of the franc. His past drew scrutiny: he received the Vichy regime's Francisque decoration in 1943, kept a friendship with the former Vichy police chief René Bousquet, and as Justice Minister during the Algerian War had a role in 45 executions. His presidency was also marked by the 1985 Rainbow Warrior bombing in Auckland, an Élysée wiretapping scandal and controversy over France's role in Rwanda before the 1994 genocide.