The Socialist Experience in France
Before the 2026 local government elections,posters captioned Betrayal is firmly established as a tradition in the course of the last fourty years,by the activists of Never Confer Electoral Victory on the Parti Socialiste on the walls of many Paris districts was a blatant distortion of historical facts. Especially to observers of parliamentary affairs who can remember the work of the government of Francois Hollande between 2012-2017,the coalition of leftwing political parties under Lionel Jospin in 1997,the re-election of President Mitterrand in 1988 and the events on the night of May 10 1981.
A glimpse of the policy making process under the government of President Mitterrand is best grasped by looking at the Verbatim series by Jacques Attali,Les Mondes de François Mitterrand by Hubert Vedrine,La vie quotidienne à l'hotel Matignon by Thierry Pfister,Jours Tranquilles à Matignon by Jean-Paul Huchon and the series written by two Elysée-based journalists titled La Decennie Mitterrand.
François Mitterrand-Pierre Mauroy Partnership
The work of the first elected president of the socialist party under the fifth republic was comparable to the achievements of the government of Prime Minister Clement Attlee in post second world war Britain or the Popular Front government of Leon Blum in 1936.In the case of the socialist experience,the abolition of death penalty,the decentralisation of powers between the central and the regional governments,the creation of the department of women affairs under Yvette Roudy,the creation of the world music day and the net book price agreement remained some of the tangible events under the government of François Mitterrand.Current affairs observers will even link the creation of the flamboyant François Mitterrand library in the 13th arrondissement of Paris,to this anecdote of Jack Lang,"this is the type of project we should do,if one day,we come to power,recounted by Claude Mollard,the author of L'Epopee Beaubourg.
The Challenges of Power and the end of the Cold War
The declaration of Cancun in 1981 made international observers to wonder whether the former secretary general of the Parti Socialiste was ready to differentiate between his role as an activist and that of the head of French diplomacy.But the government demonstrated its capacity to direct the affairs of the country with the creation of the Force d'action rapide(composed of 5 divisions) for international military operations,quick reactions to the fall of the Berlin Wall,the unification of Germany,the ratification of the Maasstricht treaty and the introduction of the Euro as a single currency.France-Nigeria relations entered a new path with two visits of President François Hollande to Nigeria and the 2014 visit of President Goodluck Jonathan to France. However, the scandal of the Irish in Vincennes,the sabotage of the Rainbow Warrior vessel in the pacific ocean by officials under government instructions and the Rwanda genocide remained the blunders of the socialist experience in France.
