Presidential 88: when Mitterrand takes his revenge on Cohabitation

His first seven-year term will have gone through three phases: the first, between 1981 and 1983, will be that of promises kept, of the improvement in the lives of the French with the increase in the minimum wage, the nationalization of large industrial groups and banks, the 5th week of paid leave… but also, the tripling of the budget deficit. This forces the President to stop and take a “turn of austerity” to limit the increase in public debt. These were the Fabius years, more austere years economically. Enough to confuse the electorate, who expressed their discontent in 1986 during the legislative : the right wins and, for the first time under the Fifth Republic, a period of cohabitation sets in.

The Prime Minister, Jacques Chirac, constitutes a monochrome government: composed solely of ministers RPR, who will lead his rival Raymond Barre to speak of “State-RPR”. Years where part of socialist policy was unraveled, notably by re-privatizing a certain number of large groups.

So when 1988 comes, it's time for revenge. Taking advantage of a Chirac wrung out by two years Matignon, of a Raymond Barre too professorial in his campaign and a lack of competitors on the left, Mitterrand takes the plunge: he chooses, after much procrastination, to relaunch himself in battle.

A documentary account of Marjolaine Koch

Guest: Franz-Olivier Giesbert, journalist and columnist. He is the author of a trilogy on the Fifth Republic published in 2023 by Gallimard (and in paperback by Folio): Intimate History of the Fifth Republic. Also author in 1990 of a biography of François Mitterrand: The President (Le Seuil) as well as in 2011: François Mitterrand, from the intimate to the political, by Franz-Olivier Giesbert, Editions du Seuil

Documentary Sources:

• It was François Mitterrand, by Jacques Attali, Editions Fayard, 2005
• Mitterrand, a French story, volume 2: The dizziness of the summit, by Jean Lacouture, Editions du Seuil, 1998
• In the shadow of presidents, by César Armand and Romain Bongibault, Editions Fayard, 2016
• François Mitterrand, a life, by Franz-Olivier Giesbert, Editions du Seuil, 2011
• François Mitterrand, from the intimate to the political, Eric Roussel, Editions Perrin (poche Tempus, 2021)
• The Mitterrand decade (two volumes), by Pierre Favier and Michel Martin-Roland, Editions du Seuil, 1996 and 1999
• Press clippings du Monde, Figaro, l’Humanité, la Croix, le Nouvel Observateur, Libération.

Discography:

JACQUES HIGELIN Fallen from the sky 1988

RESIDENCE PERMIT Sweet France 1986

LONDON GRAMS House 2024