Editing François Mitterrand (section)

==Fourth Republic==
{{more citations needed|section|date=May 2017}}
{{Further|French Fourth Republic}}

===Rise in politics: 1946–1954===
[[File:François Mitterrand, ministre des Anciens combattants (1947).jpg|thumb|left|Mitterrand as War Veterans Minister in February 1947]]

After the war, Mitterrand quickly moved back into politics. At the [[June 1946 French legislative election|June 1946 legislative election]], he led the list of the [[Rally of the Republican Lefts]] (''Rassemblement des gauches républicaines'', RGR) in the Western suburb of Paris, but he was not elected. The RGR was an electoral entity composed of the [[Radical Party (France)|Radical Party]], the centrist [[Democratic and Socialist Union of the Resistance]] (''Union démocratique et socialiste de la Résistance'', UDSR) and several conservative groupings. It opposed the policy of the "[[Three-parties]] alliance" (Communists, Socialists and Christian Democrats).

In the [[November 1946 French legislative election|November 1946 legislative election]], he succeeded in winning a seat as deputy from the [[Nièvre]] ''département''. To be elected, he had to win a seat at the expense of the [[French Communist Party]] (PCF). As leader of the RGR list, he led a very [[anti-communist]] campaign. He became a member of the UDSR party. In January 1947, he joined the cabinet as War Veterans Minister. He held various offices in the [[French Fourth Republic|Fourth Republic]] as a Deputy and as a Minister (holding eleven different portfolios in total), including as a [[Mayor (France)|mayor]] of [[Château-Chinon (Ville)|Château-Chinon]] from 1959 to 1981.

In May 1948, Mitterrand participated in the [[Congress of The Hague]], together with [[Konrad Adenauer]], [[Winston Churchill]], [[Harold Macmillan]], [[Paul-Henri Spaak]], [[Albert Coppé]] and [[Altiero Spinelli]]. It originated the European Movement.

As Overseas Minister (1950–1951), Mitterrand opposed the colonial lobby to propose a reform program. He connected with the left when he resigned from the cabinet after the arrest of [[Morocco]]'s sultan (1953). As leader of the progressive wing of the UDSR, he took the head of the party in 1953, replacing the conservative [[René Pleven]].

In June 1953, Mitterrand attended the coronation of [[Elizabeth II|Queen Elizabeth II]]. Seated next to the elderly [[Princess Marie Bonaparte]], he reported having spent much of the ceremony being psychoanalyzed by her.{{citation needed|date=August 2020}}

===Senior minister during the Algerian War: 1954–1958===

As [[List of Interior Ministers of France|Interior Minister]] in [[Pierre Mendès-France]]'s cabinet (1954–1955), Mitterrand had to direct the response to the [[Algerian War of Independence]]. He claimed: "[[French Algeria|Algeria is France]]." He was suspected of being the [[informant|informer]] of the Communist Party in the cabinet. This rumour was spread by the former Paris police prefect, who had been dismissed by him. The suspicions were dismissed by subsequent investigations.

The UDSR joined the [[Republican Front (French Fourth Republic)|Republican Front]], a centre-left coalition, which won the [[1956 French legislative election|1956 legislative election]]. As [[List of Justice Ministers of France|Justice Minister]] (1956–1957), François Mitterrand allowed the expansion of martial law in the Algerian conflict. Unlike other ministers (including Mendès-France), who criticised the repressive policy in Algeria, he remained in [[Guy Mollet]]'s cabinet until its end. As Minister of Justice, he had a role in 45 executions of the Algerian natives, recommending President [[René Coty]] to reject clemency in 80% of the cases, an action he later came to regret.<ref name="lepoint">{{cite web|url=http://www.lepoint.fr/politique/les-guillotines-de-mitterrand-31-08-2001-56908_20.php|title=Les guillotinés de Mitterrand – Le Point|publisher=lepoint.fr|access-date=7 December 2014|date=31 August 2001|archive-date=22 August 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150822195101/http://www.lepoint.fr/politique/les-guillotines-de-mitterrand-31-08-2001-56908_20.php|url-status=live}}</ref> François Mitterrand's role in confirming the death sentences of FLN rebels convicted by French courts of terrorism and later in abolishing the death penalty in 1981 led the British writer Anthony Daniels (writing under his pseudonym of [[Theodore Dalrymple]]) to accuse François Mitterrand of being an unprincipled opportunist, a cynical politician who proudly confirmed death sentences of FLN rebels in the 1950s when it was popular and who only came to champion abolishing the death penalty when this was popular with the French people.<ref>{{cite magazine| last = Dalrmymple| first = Theodore| title = The Battle of Algiers| magazine = The New English Review| date = March 2015| url = http://www.newenglishreview.org/Theodore_Dalrymple/A_Battle_of_Algiers/| access-date = 25 October 2016 |url-status=dead | archive-date = 29 October 2016| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20161029050022/http://www.newenglishreview.org/Theodore_Dalrymple/A_Battle_of_Algiers/}}</ref>

As Minister of Justice, he was an official representative of France during the wedding of [[Rainier III]], [[Prince of Monaco]], and actress [[Grace Kelly]]. Under the Fourth Republic, he was representative of a generation of young ambitious politicians. He appeared as a possible future prime minister.