Editing François Mitterrand (section)

==Early life==
{{Further|France in the twentieth century|French Third Republic}}
[[File:François Mitterrand 1933.jpg|thumb|upright|Mitterrand in 1933]]
François Mitterrand studied from 1925 to 1934 at the Collège Saint-Paul in [[Angoulême]], where he became a member of the [[Jeunesse Étudiante Chrétienne]], the student organisation of ''[[Catholic Action|Action catholique]]''. Arriving in Paris in the autumn of 1934, he then went to the [[École Libre des Sciences Politiques]] until 1937, where he obtained his diploma in July of that year. François Mitterrand took membership for about a year in the ''Volontaires nationaux'' (National Volunteers), an organisation related to [[François de la Rocque]]'s far-right league, the ''[[Croix de Feu]]''; the league had just participated in the [[6 February 1934 riots]] which led to the fall of the second ''[[Cartel des Gauches]]'' (Left-Wing Coalition).<ref name="Péan">[[Pierre Péan]], ''Une jeunesse française'' (biography on Mitterrand), p.23–35</ref>

Contrary to some reports, Mitterrand never became a formal member of the [[French Social Party]], which was the successor to the Croix de Feu and may be considered the first French right-wing mass party.<ref name="Péan" /> However, he did write news articles in the ''[[L'Écho de Paris]]'' newspaper, which was close to the Social Party. He participated in the demonstrations against the "''invasion [[métèque]]''" in February 1935 and then in those against law teacher [[Gaston Jèze]], who had been nominated as juridical counsellor of [[Ethiopia]]'s [[Negus]], in January 1936.

When [[Mitterrand and the far right|Mitterrand's involvement]] in these conservative nationalist movements was revealed in the 1990s, he attributed his actions to the milieu of his youth. He furthermore had some personal and family relations with members of the ''[[La Cagoule|Cagoule]]'', a far-right terrorist group in the 1930s.<ref>[[Henry Rousso]], ''Le Syndrome de Vichy'', p.365</ref>

Mitterrand then served his [[Conscription in France|conscription]] from 1937 to 1939 in the 23rd régiment d'infanterie coloniale. In 1938, he became the best friend of {{Interlanguage link|Georges Dayan|fr}}, a Jewish socialist, whom he saved from anti-Semitic aggressions by the national-royalist movement ''[[Action française]]''.<ref>{{cite book|first=Jean |last=Lacouture|title=Mitterrand, une histoire de Français|publisher= éd. du Seuil, "Points"|page= 46/48}}</ref> His friendship with Dayan caused Mitterrand to begin to question some of his nationalist ideas. Finishing his law studies, he was sent in September 1939 to the [[Maginot line]] near [[Montmédy]], with the rank of Sergeant-chief (infantry sergeant). He became engaged to Marie-Louise Terrasse (future actress and television presenter [[Catherine Langeais]]) in May 1940, when she was 16, but she broke it off in January 1942. Following an observation of Nazi concentration camps at the end of World War II, François Mitterrand became an [[agnostic]].<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LiHLZQ6XtzEC|title=François Mitterrand: A Very French President|first=Ronald|last=Tiersky|date=1 January 2003|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|isbn=9780742524736|access-date=27 October 2015|archive-date=25 October 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181025120803/https://books.google.com/books?id=LiHLZQ6XtzEC|url-status=live}}</ref>