right, to form a government. Chirac did not have
an easy task, forever looking over his shoulder at
the Giscard party in the National Assembly, whose
members disliked him intensely; they were never-
theless an indispensable part of his majority. He
also had in the Elysée a Socialist as his president.
The French found a witty way to describe his
predicament – cohabitation. Chirac found no
room in the government for Giscard, who had
hoped to return to the Finance Ministry. Thus,
from the start, Chirac exposed himself not only to
the opposition of the left but also to jealousy from
the UDF, which was largely excluded from power.
Part of Chirac’s economic recovery programme
was not so different from that of the outgoing
Socialist government. But there was bound to be a
clash over his determination to privatise and dena-
tionalise state-owned companies. Though the
president tried, he could not stop the privatisations
receiving the assent of the National Assembly.
Chirac also reversed the system of proportional
representation, to which the National Front had
owed their spectacular breakthrough nationally.
With a return to ‘first past the post’, the National
Front could not hope to gain many seats.
The cutbacks imposed by the government
were not popular. In December 1986 a long rail
strike paralysed the French railways for nearly a
month. Strikes spread in January 1987 in the
public sector and Chirac was forced to compro-
mise on pay and conditions. During the period
from 1986 to 1988, inflation, however, fell to
between 2 and 3 per cent.
Mitterrand was able cleverly to project an
image of standing above the parties and so
escaped blame for the government’s policies. His
message was that he represented a solid rallying
point for the nation. Meanwhile, students and
universities seethed in protest and unemployment
remained above 2.5 million. Chirac accused
Mitterrand of excessive presidential interference
in government. The farmers, once protected by
the right, have since the 1980s had to face reduc-
tions in subsidies, increased competition and gen-
erally harder times. As a ‘statesman’, Mitterrand
maintained a high profile in foreign affairs, in par-
ticular playing a leading role at the European
Community summits. He also cultivated close
relations with the West German chancellor
Helmut Kohl, thus strengthening the Bonn–Paris
axis; his relations with Margaret Thatcher, on the
other hand, were formal and cool. Mitterrand was
just as firm as his predecessors in maintaining
France’s independent nuclear strike force.
When the time came for the presidential elec-
tion in the spring of 1988, Mitterrand easily led
the first ballot amid nine contenders; Chirac came
second. The real shock was that Le Pen had
secured over 4 million votes, 14.4 per cent of
the votes, running fourth only just behind the
respected and popular Barre. The second-ballot
run-off was a foregone conclusion, with Mitter-
rand substantially increasing his percentage share
of the votes, attaining 54 per cent to Chirac’s
46 per cent (16.7 million votes to 14.2 million).
Chirac resigned the premiership and Mitterrand
chose the undogmatic market-oriented Michel
Rocard as his successor. He then dissolved the
National Assembly.
The Socialists had scored a great success,
though after the second round of voting for the
National Assembly they did not obtain an overall
majority, achieving with their affiliated parties
276 seats. In fact, the broad left and right coali-
tions were fairly evenly divided. With the National
Front reduced to one seat thanks to the aban-
donment of proportional representation, with the
communists unlikely to vote with the right, and
with the right divided, the centrist Socialist prime
minister, Rocard, enjoyed comfortable majorities
when voting took place in the Assembly. Rocard,
who emphasised consensus in politics, was dull
compared to Laurent Fabius. He had no grand
plans, but he laid stress on solid achievement and
won public approval because most people were
tired of the right–left confrontations. The
economy continued on a ‘virtuous’ path, with a
good rate of growth and low inflation. The
Rocard government did not alarm private indus-
try and Mitterrand was clearly steering a more
central political course. But a tight control over
public-sector pay led to renewed strikes in the
closing years of the 1980s.
Financial rectitude was accompanied by close
on 10 per cent unemployment, which stubbornly
persisted into the 1990s. Mitterrand’s France was
1
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