President of France between 1981 and 1995, François Mitterrand embodied the hopes of left-wing politicians of the time, pushed out of power since 1957.

Born in Jarnac into a traditional catholic and conservative family, he was finishing off his studies in Paris when he was conscripted (1939). Injured and then captured in Germany, he escaped in 1941. He then worked in Vichy, where he initially established links with the Resistance, which he joined definitively in 1943. Secretary General for prisoners of war and detainees in 1944 and the MP for Nièvre in 1946, he took on ministerial responsibilities for the first ten years of the Fourth Republic and supported the beginning of the war with Algeria.

In 1958, he denounced the “coup d'état” which brought General De Gaulle to power. A left-wing candidate he tied with the hero of the Resistance, during the first presidential election by universal suffrage in 1965, winning 45% of the vote. After the General's retirement and the Left's disastrous performance in the 1969 elections, he was elected General Secretary of the Socialist Party at the first Epinay Conference (1971).

Narrowly losing the 1974 election, he was elected president of France in 1981 and re-elected in 1988. These two seven-year terms in office were notably marked by the abolition of the death penalty and the modernisation of the penal code. Following nationalisations and the social measures of 1981-1982, a rigorous policy was introduced as of 1983. Mitterrand headed the 1^st cohabitation composed of a French president supported by an opposing government (1986-1988), as well as the second (1993-1995), subsequently underpinning the liberalisation of the country during his second seven-year term in office. He also went on to play a key role in European recovery. Moreover, his work in the cultural domain led namely to the creation of the Grand Arche at La Défense, the Grand Louvre, and the National Library which bears his name. The end of his second term in office was marked by his illness, from which he died only a few months after leaving the political scene.