Editing François Mitterrand (section)

===Foreign policy===
{{Main|Foreign policy of the François Mitterrand administration}}
According to Wayne Northcutt, certain domestic circumstances helped shape Mitterrand's foreign policy in four ways: he needed to maintain a political consensus; he kept an eye on economic conditions; he believed in the nationalistic imperative for French policy; and he tried to exploit Gaullism and its heritage for political advantage.<ref>Wayne Northcutt. "The domestic origins of Mitterrand's foreign policy, 1981-1985." ''Contemporary French Civilization'' (1986), 10#2 pp 233-267</ref>

====East/West relations====
François Mitterrand supported closer European collaboration and the preservation of France's unique relationship with its former colonies, which he feared were falling under "[[Anglosphere|Anglo-Saxon]] influence." His drive to preserve French power in Africa led to controversies concerning Paris' role during the [[Rwandan genocide]].<ref name="rwanda">[http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article2730430.ece Mitterrand's role revealed in Rwandan genocide warning] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080706182535/http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article2730430.ece |date=6 July 2008 }}, 3 July 2007. ''[[The Independent]]''</ref>

Despite Mitterrand's left-wing affiliations, the 1980s saw France becoming more distant from the [[USSR]], especially following events such as the expulsion of 47 Soviet [[diplomat]]s and their families from the country in 1982 after they were accused of large-scale industrial and military [[espionage]]. François Mitterrand also sharply criticized the [[Soviet–Afghan War|Soviet intervention]] in [[Afghanistan]] as well as the country's nuclear weapons buildup. When François Mitterrand visited the USSR in November 1988, the Soviet media claimed to be 'leaving aside the virtually wasted decade and losing the [[France-Russia relations|Soviet-French]] 'special relationship' of the Gaullist era'.{{citation needed|date=October 2021}}

Nevertheless, Mitterrand was worried by the rapidity of the [[Eastern Bloc|Eastern bloc's]] [[Revolutions of 1989|collapse]]. He was opposed to [[German reunification]] but came to see it as unavoidable.<ref>{{cite news | url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article6829735.ece | work=The Times | location=London | title=Thatcher told Gorbachev Britain did not want German reunification | first=Michael | last=Binyon | date=11 September 2009 | access-date=2 May 2010 | archive-date=16 July 2011 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110716101355/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article6829735.ece | url-status=dead }}</ref> He was opposed to the swift recognition of [[Croatia]] and [[Slovenia]], which he thought would lead to the [[Wars in Yugoslavia|violent implosion of Yugoslavia]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=November 29, 1991 |orig-date=November 29, 1991 |title=Slovenian, Croatian Leaders To Visit Bonn To Discuss Recognition With AM-Yugoslavia, Bjt |url=https://apnews.com/article/7205deb83bfcbf95e04db04fb3a27e48 |access-date= |website=AP NEWS |language=en}}</ref>

France participated in the [[Gulf War]] (1990–1991) with the [[Gulf War#Coalition involvement|U.N. coalition]].{{citation needed|date=October 2021}}

====European policy====
[[File:Bundesarchiv B 145 Bild-F076604-0021, Frankreich, Staatsbesuch Bundeskanzler Kohl.jpg|thumb|Mitterrand and German Chancellor [[Helmut Kohl|Kohl]], 1987.]]
He initially opposed further membership, fearing the Community was not ready and it would water it down to a free trade area.<ref name="ESI">[http://www.esiweb.org/index.php?lang=en&id=156&document_ID=74 Beyond Enlargement Fatigue? The Dutch debate on Turkish accession] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120426011550/http://www.esiweb.org/index.php?lang=en&id=156&document_ID=74 |date=26 April 2012 }}, European Security Initiative 2006</ref>

Mitterrand supported the [[Enlargement of the European Union|enlargement of the Community]] to include Spain and Portugal (which both joined in January 1986). In February 1986 he helped the ''[[Single European Act]]'' come into effect. He worked well with his friend [[Helmut Kohl]] and improved [[Franco-German relations]] significantly.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=van Hoef|first=Yuri|date=2014|title=Friendship in world politics: Assessing the personal relationships between Kohl and Mitterrand, and Bush and Gorbachev|url=https://amityjournal.leeds.ac.uk/|journal=Amity: The Journal of Friendship Studies|volume=3|issue=1 |pages=72–75|access-date=5 March 2018|archive-date=5 March 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180305142747/https://amityjournal.leeds.ac.uk/|url-status=live}}</ref> Together they fathered the [[Maastricht Treaty]], which was signed on 7 February 1992. It was ratified by [[1992 French referendum|referendum]], and approved by just over 51% of the voters.

British Prime Minister [[Margaret Thatcher]] was against a [[German reunification]]<ref>sueddeutsche.de 10 September 2009: [http://www.sueddeutsche.de/politik/deutsche-einheit-fuer-thatcher-war-deutschland-eine-gefaehrliche-kroete-1.28579 Für Thatcher war Deutschland eine gefährliche Kröte] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120401112103/http://www.sueddeutsche.de/politik/deutsche-einheit-fuer-thatcher-war-deutschland-eine-gefaehrliche-kroete-1.28579 |date=1 April 2012 }}</ref> and also against the then discussed [[Maastricht Treaty]].
When Kohl, then West German Chancellor, asked François Mitterrand to agree to reunification (France was one of the four Allies who had to agree to the [[Two Plus Four]]-treaty), François Mitterrand told Kohl he accepted it only in the event Germany would abandon the [[Deutsche Mark]] and adopt the Euro. Kohl accepted this [[package deal]] (including without talking to [[Karl Otto Pöhl]], then President of the Bundesbank).<ref>spiegel.de: [http://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/0,1518,719608,00.html ''Mitterrand forderte Euro als Gegenleistung für die Einheit''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120127081144/http://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/0,1518,719608,00.html |date=27 January 2012 }}; spiegel.de 27. April 1998: [http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-7870401.html Dunkelste Stunden. – Der Kanzler öffnet die Akten über die deutsche Einheit. Die Dokumente zeigen: Frankreich hat das schnelle Ende der Mark erzwungen.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120723171709/http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-7870401.html |date=23 July 2012 }}; spiegel.de 2. März 1998: [http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-7833746.html Weg ohne Wiederkehr. – Hinter der Fassade ihrer deutsch-französischen Freundschaft haben Helmut Kohl und François Mitterrand erbittert um Einheit und Euro gerungen, wie jetzt neue Dokumente aus dem Kanzleramt zeigen.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120803112202/http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-7833746.html |date=3 August 2012 }}</ref><ref name="spiegel">spiegel.de 8. May 2012: [http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/euro-struggles-can-be-traced-to-origins-of-common-currency-a-831842.html Operation Self-Deceit: New Documents Shine Light on Euro Birth Defects] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120509184543/http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/euro-struggles-can-be-traced-to-origins-of-common-currency-a-831842.html |date=9 May 2012 }}</ref>

That year, he also established the [[Mitterrand doctrine]], a policy of not extraditing convicted far-left terrorists of the [[Years of Lead (Italy)|years of lead]] such as [[Cesare Battisti (born 1954)|Cesare Battisti]] to [[Italy]], due to the alleged non-conformity of Italian legislation to European standards of rule of law, in particular the anti-terrorism laws passed by Italy in the 1970s and 1980s. When the [[European Court of Human Rights]] finally ruled against the François Mitterrand doctrine, the policy had already led to most of the criminals never being punished for their crimes.{{citation needed|date=October 2019}}

====1990 speech at La Baule====
Responding to a democratic movement in Africa after the 1989 fall of the [[Berlin Wall]], he made his La Baule speech in June 1990 which tied [[development aid]] to democratic efforts from former French colonies, and during which he opposed the devaluation of the [[CFA Franc]]. Seeing an "East wind" blowing in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, he stated that a "Southern wind" was also blowing in Africa, and that state leaders had to respond to the populations' wishes and aspirations by a "democratic opening", which included a [[representative democracy|representative system]], free elections, [[Multi-party system|multipartyism]], [[freedom of the press]], an independent judiciary, and abolition of censorship. Claiming that France was the country making the most important effort concerning development aid, he announced that the [[Least developed country|least developed countries]] (LDCs) would henceforth receive only grants from France, as opposed to loans (in order to combat the massive increase of [[Third World debt]] during the 1980s). He likewise limited the [[interest rate]] to 5% on French loans to intermediate-income countries (that is, [[Ivory Coast]], [[Democratic Republic of the Congo|Congo]], Cameroon and [[Gabon]]).

He also criticized interventionism in sovereign matters, which was according to him only another form of "[[colonialism]]". However, according to François Mitterrand, this did not imply lessened concern on the part of Paris for its [[French colonial empire|former colonies]]. François Mitterrand thus continued with the African policy of de Gaulle inaugurated in 1960, which followed the relative failure of the 1958 creation of the [[French Community]]. All in all, François Mitterrand's La Baule speech, which marked a relative turning point in France's policy concerning its former colonies, has been compared with the 1956 ''loi-cadre [[Gaston Defferre|Defferre]]'' which was responding to [[anti-colonialist]] feelings.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20061117230046/http://helios.univ-reims.fr/Labos/CERI/Mitterrand_et_la_democratie_en_Afrique.htm#UN%20DISCOURS%20DE%20CIRCONSTANCE François Mitterrand et la démocratie en Afrique, huit ans après], by Albert Bourgi, {{ill|Centre de recherches internationales|fr}} (CERI) (mixed study unit with the [[CNRS]], dependent of the ''[[Fondation Nationale des Sciences Politiques]]'') {{in lang|fr}}</ref>

African heads of state reacted to François Mitterrand's speech at most with indifference. [[Omar Bongo]], President of Gabon, declared that he would rather have "events counsel him;" [[Abdou Diouf]], President of Senegal, said that, according to him, the best solution was a "strong government" and a "good faith opposition;" the President of Chad, [[Hissène Habré]] (nicknamed the "African [[Augusto Pinochet|Pinochet]]") claimed that it was contradictory to demand that African states should simultaneously carry on a "democratic policy" and "social and economic policies which limited their sovereignty", in a clear allusion to the [[International Monetary Fund]] and the [[World Bank]]'s "[[structural adjustment]] programs". [[Hassan II]], the king of Morocco, said for his part that "Africa was too open to the world to remain indifferent to what was happening around it", but that Western countries should "help young democracies open out, without putting a knife under their throat, without a brutal transition to multipartyism."<ref>[http://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/fr/IMG/pdf/B0100_-fiche22sommets.pdf Les 22 premières conférences des chefs d'Etat de France et d'Afrique] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070203100948/http://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/fr/IMG/pdf/B0100_-fiche22sommets.pdf |date=3 February 2007 }}, on French government website – URL accessed in January 2007 {{in lang|fr}}</ref>

All in all, the La Baule speech has been said to be on one hand "one of the foundations of political renewal in Africa French speaking area", and on the other hand "cooperation with France", this despite "incoherence and inconsistency, like any [[public policy]]".<ref>[http://doc-iep.univ-lyon2.fr/Ressources/Documents/Etudiants/Memoires/detail-memoire.html?ID=310 Le discours de la Baule et le pluralisme en Afrique noire francophone. Essai d'analyse d'une contribution à l'instauration de la démocratie dans les états d'Afrique noire d'expression française] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070929084136/http://doc-iep.univ-lyon2.fr/Ressources/Documents/Etudiants/Memoires/detail-memoire.html?ID=310 |date=29 September 2007 }}, 1993–94 [[DEA (former French degree)|DEA]] ''mémoire'' of Félix François Lissouck, under the direction of Paul Bacot, held in the [[Institut d'études politiques|Political Studies Institute]] (IEP) of Lyon. {{in lang|fr}}</ref>

====Discovery of HIV====
The controversy surrounding the discovery of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) was intense after American researcher [[Robert Gallo]] and French scientist [[Luc Montagnier]] both claimed to have discovered it. The two scientists had given the new virus different names. The [[List of scientific priority disputes|controversy]] was eventually settled by an agreement (helped along by the mediation of Dr [[Jonas Salk]]) between President [[Ronald Reagan]] and François Mitterrand which gave equal credit to both men and their teams.{{citation needed|date=October 2021}}<ref>{{Cite book |last=Shilts |first=Randy |title=And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic |publisher=Stonewall Inn Editions |year=1987 |isbn=9780312241353 |language=en}}</ref>

====Apology to the Huguenots====
In October 1985, to commemorate the tricentenary of the [[Revocation of the Edict of Nantes]], Mitterrand gave a formal apology to the descendants of [[Huguenot]]s around the world.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://discours.vie-publique.fr/notices/857015500.html |title=Allocution de M. François Mitterrand, Président de la République, aux cérémonies du tricentenaire de la Révocation de l'Edit de Nantes, sur la tolérance en matière politique et religieuse et l'histoire du protestantisme en France, Paris, Palais de l'UNESCO |publisher=Discours.vie-publique.fr |date=11 October 1985 |access-date=11 March 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150630182945/http://discours.vie-publique.fr/notices/857015500.html |archive-date=30 June 2015 |url-status=dead }}</ref> At the same time, a special postage stamp was released in their honour. The stamp states that France ''is'' the home of the Huguenots ("Accueil des Huguenots"). Hence their rights were finally recognised.

====Co-Prince of Andorra====
On 2 February 1993, in his capacity as co-prince of [[Andorra]], Mitterrand and [[Joan Martí Alanis]], who was [[Bishop of Urgell]] and therefore Andorra's other co-prince, signed Andorra's new [[Constitution of Andorra|constitution]], which was later approved by [[referendum]] in the principality.