Editing François Mitterrand (section)

===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}}