François Mitterrand.

Called to the French army in September 1939, François Mitterrand had studied at the Paris Law Faculty and Sciences Po. He was born on October 26, 1916 in Jarnac, Charente, France to Yvonne Lorrain and Joseph Mitterrand. Wounded and imprisoned, he escaped in December 1941 and joined the Résistance, playing an important role.

In November 1946, François Mitterrand became deputy for Nièvre. He held several ministerial posts during the Fourth Republic: Minister of Overseas France 1950-1951, Minister of the Interior 1954-1955, and Minister of Justice 1956-1957. In 1958 he opposed Charles de Gaulle’s Fifth Republic and lost his seat, but returned to the National Assembly in 1962. He became mayor of Château-Chinon in 1959 and president of the General Council of Nièvre in 1964. As the sole left-wing candidate in the 1965 presidential election, he forced de Gaulle into a runoff and won 45%. After a poor showing in 1969, he rebuilt the Socialist Party at Epinay in 1971 and narrowly lost to Valéry Giscard d’Estaing in 1974. Finally elected president in 1981, he took sweeping social measures, abolished the death penalty, modernized the penal code, and championed freedom of speech. He also launched the Grands Projets: the Louvre Pyramid, the Arche de la Défense, and the National Library. Re-elected in 1988, he completed his second term in May 1995.

François Mitterrand married Danielle Mitterrand on October 29, 1944; she remained his wife until his death. They had three sons: Jean Christophe, Gilbert, and Hravn Forsne born 1988 from an affair with Swedish journalist Christina Forsne. He also had a daughter, Mazarine Pingeot, with historian Anne Pingeot, a relationship revealed publicly after his death. His siblings included Jacques Mitterrand, Robert Mitterrand, and Marie Josèphe Mitterrand.

François Mitterrand transformed France through social reforms, the abolition of the death penalty in 1981, and monumental cultural projects like the Louvre Pyramid opened 1989 and the Arche de la Défense completed 1989. He strengthened France’s role in the European Union and received the Charlemagne Prize in 1988 for his European vision. A prolific writer, he left a literary mark. He is remembered as the longest-serving president of the Fifth Republic and a pivotal figure in modern French history.