President Francois Mitterrand speaking at a Presidential Election Rally in Toulouse, France, 1988
Francois Mitterrand speaking at a Presidential Election Rally in Toulouse, France, 1988
François Maurice Adrien Marie Mitterrand[a] (26 October 1916 – 8 January 1996) was a French statesman who served as President of France from 1981 to 1995, the longest time in office in the history of France. As First Secretary of the Socialist Party, he was the first left-wing politician to assume the presidency under the Fifth Republic.