French presidential election, 1981
Encyclopedia
The French presidential election of 1981 took place on 10 May 1981, giving the presidency of France to François Mitterrand
, the first Socialist president of the Fifth Republic
.
In the first round of voting on 26 April 1981, a political spectrum of ten candidates stood for election, and the leading two candidates – Mitterrand and Valéry Giscard d'Estaing
– advanced to a second round. Mitterrand and his Socialist Party
received approximately 52% of the vote, while Giscard and his Union for French Democracy
trailed with about 48%, a margin of 1,065,956 votes.
The Socialist Party's electoral program was called 110 Propositions for France
. Mitterrand served as President of France for the full seven-year term (1981–1988) and won re-election in 1988
.
was Giscard’s incumbency itself. Usually, being an incumbent is an advantage. This was not the case, however, during the 1981 French elections. The incumbent seemed to have been cursed with many political misfortunes during his Presidential term; these crippling situations included internal matters that he could have controlled (and chose to ignore), and external forces that were beyond the incumbent’s control.
Moreover, Giscard himself felt that others involved in the political machine were inept and ill-suited to correctly implement his important policy decisions; he therefore took over the most minute details in his policy-making, leaving his Prime Minister Jacques Chirac
, his ministers, and several layers of civil servants without duties, dissatisfied and ultimately without any power. Frustrated, Chirac resigned in 1976, built his own party
and proceeded to lambast Giscard's policies, starting with the December 1978 Call of Cochin
. The scene was set for the 1981 election when Chirac, having lost the "primary", failed to fully support Giscard in the second round, clearing the path for Mitterrand to take power.
(As an indication of Giscard's failing popularity, a poll taken in June 1980 showed that even some people on the Left (15% of Socialists and 13% of Communists) had liked and endorsed Giscard previously because of his reformist attitude. By April 1981, however, his support on the left had dropped dramatically (7% and 1% of Socialists and Communists respectively). And there was no offsetting rise in his support on the Right.
As the election wore on and Chirac joined the race, Giscard had to appeal to his Rightist constituency and drop most of these radical views. As a result, his popularity fell and he was thought of as an opportunist.
Finally, Giscard had promised to be open to the opposition in Parliament, but his behaviour in office did not match the expectations he had made for himself. Because of his personality and his control over policy implementation, the executive powers had become highly centralized; control was concentrated in the hands of Giscard and his cabinet composed of a few trusted friends—namely, Michel Poniatowski, a "faithful friend and advisor".
Thus in the first round each candidate must present him or herself as the better candidate while being careful not to remove all credibility of his/her fellow Right or Left candidates, as their opponents may have to run again in the next round against the opposing Right or Left candidate. (Much as is the case with the primaries in the USA).
In the second round, however, total unity must be achieved. This leads to the movement of both groups toward the center, with coalitions between center groups and extremists within the Right and Left.
There was also the tactical ingenuity on the part of the Left that brought about Mitterrand’s victory. As author Penniman points out, in a shrewd move, the Left gained "strength through disunity." The Right’s disunity between the UDF and RPR factions brought about the downfall of their major candidate. The split between the Left’s Socialist and Communist Parties, however, allowed the electorate to be more comfortable voting for the Socialists while gaining the Communist Party votes, which retains roughly 20% of the electorate votes.
The economy was in poor shape: unemployment was high, inflation was rising, oil prices were rising.
François Mitterrand
François Maurice Adrien Marie Mitterrand was the 21st President of the French Republic and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra, serving from 1981 until 1995. He is the longest-serving President of France and, as leader of the Socialist Party, the only figure from the left so far elected President...
, the first Socialist president of the Fifth Republic
French Fifth Republic
The Fifth Republic is the fifth and current republican constitution of France, introduced on 4 October 1958. The Fifth Republic emerged from the collapse of the French Fourth Republic, replacing the prior parliamentary government with a semi-presidential system...
.
In the first round of voting on 26 April 1981, a political spectrum of ten candidates stood for election, and the leading two candidates – Mitterrand and Valéry Giscard d'Estaing
Valéry Giscard d'Estaing
Valéry Marie René Georges Giscard d'Estaing is a French centre-right politician who was President of the French Republic from 1974 until 1981...
– advanced to a second round. Mitterrand and his Socialist Party
Socialist Party (France)
The Socialist Party is a social-democratic political party in France and the largest party of the French centre-left. It is one of the two major contemporary political parties in France, along with the center-right Union for a Popular Movement...
received approximately 52% of the vote, while Giscard and his Union for French Democracy
Union for French Democracy
The Union for French Democracy was a French centrist political party. It was founded in 1978 as an electoral alliance to support President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing in order to counterbalance the Gaullist preponderance over the right. This name was chosen due to the title of Giscard d'Estaing's...
trailed with about 48%, a margin of 1,065,956 votes.
The Socialist Party's electoral program was called 110 Propositions for France
110 Propositions for France
110 Propositions for France was the name of the Socialist Party's program for the 1981 presidential election during which the Socialist Party's candidate, François Mitterrand, was elected by 51.76% of the people...
. Mitterrand served as President of France for the full seven-year term (1981–1988) and won re-election in 1988
French presidential election, 1988
Presidential elections were held in France on 24 April and 8 May 1988.In 1981, the Socialist Party leader, François Mitterrand, was elected President of France and the Left won the legislative election. However, in 1986, the Right regained a parliamentary majority. President Mitterrand was forced...
.
First round
| Candidate | Party | Vote | Percent | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Valéry Giscard d'Estaing Valéry Giscard d'Estaing Valéry Marie René Georges Giscard d'Estaing is a French centre-right politician who was President of the French Republic from 1974 until 1981... |
Union for French Democracy Union for French Democracy The Union for French Democracy was a French centrist political party. It was founded in 1978 as an electoral alliance to support President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing in order to counterbalance the Gaullist preponderance over the right. This name was chosen due to the title of Giscard d'Estaing's... (UDF) |
8,222,432 | 28.33% | |
| François Mitterrand François Mitterrand François Maurice Adrien Marie Mitterrand was the 21st President of the French Republic and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra, serving from 1981 until 1995. He is the longest-serving President of France and, as leader of the Socialist Party, the only figure from the left so far elected President... |
Socialist Party (PS) | 7,505,960 | 25.86% | |
| Jacques Chirac Jacques Chirac Jacques René Chirac is a French politician who served as President of France from 1995 to 2007. He previously served as Prime Minister of France from 1974 to 1976 and from 1986 to 1988 , and as Mayor of Paris from 1977 to 1995.After completing his studies of the DEA's degree at the... |
Rally for the Republic Rally for the Republic The Rally for the Republic , was a French right-wing political party. Originating from the Union of Democrats for the Republic , it was founded by Jacques Chirac in 1976 and presented itself as the heir of Gaullism... (RPR) |
5,225,846 | 18.00% | |
| Georges Marchais Georges Marchais Georges René Louis Marchais was the head of the French Communist Party from 1972 to 1994, and a candidate in the French presidential elections of 1981 - in which he managed to garner only 15.34% of the vote, which was considered at the time a major setback for the party.-Early life:Born into a... |
French Communist Party French Communist Party The French Communist Party is a political party in France which advocates the principles of communism.Although its electoral support has declined in recent decades, the PCF retains a large membership, behind only that of the Union for a Popular Movement , and considerable influence in French... (PCF) |
4,456,922 | 15.35% | |
| Brice Lalonde Brice Lalonde Brice Lalonde is a former green party leader in France, who ran for President of France in the Presidential elections, 1981. In 1988 he was named Minister of the Environment, and in 1990 founded the green party Ecology Generation... |
Environmentalist Environmentalism Environmentalism is a broad philosophy, ideology and social movement regarding concerns for environmental conservation and improvement of the health of the environment, particularly as the measure for this health seeks to incorporate the concerns of non-human elements... |
1,116,254 | 3.85% | |
| Arlette Laguiller Arlette Laguiller Arlette Yvonne Laguiller is a French Trotskyist politician. Since 1973, she has been the spokeswoman and the best known leader and perennial candidate of the Lutte Ouvrière political party... |
Workers' Struggle (LO) | 668,057 | 2.30% | |
| Michel Crépeau Michel Crépeau Michel Crépeau was a French centre-left politician.Born in 1930, barrister, he joined the Radical Party. When it split in 1972, he founded the Movement of Left Radicals which chosen the alliance with the Socialist Party and the French Communist Party... |
Movement of Left Radicals Left Radical Party The Radical Party of the Left is a minor social-liberal, and in opposition to its common understanding of its name, a moderate centre-left political party in France advocating radicalism, secularism to its french extend known as laïcité, progressivism, pro-Europeanism, individual freedom and... (MRG) |
642,847 | 2.21% | |
| Michel Debré Michel Debré Michel Jean-Pierre Debré was a French Gaullist politician. He is considered the "father" of the current Constitution of France, and was the first Prime Minister of the Fifth Republic... |
Splinter of the Rally for the Republic Rally for the Republic The Rally for the Republic , was a French right-wing political party. Originating from the Union of Democrats for the Republic , it was founded by Jacques Chirac in 1976 and presented itself as the heir of Gaullism... (RPR) |
481,821 | 1.66% | |
| Marie-France Garaud | Close to the Rally for the Republic Rally for the Republic The Rally for the Republic , was a French right-wing political party. Originating from the Union of Democrats for the Republic , it was founded by Jacques Chirac in 1976 and presented itself as the heir of Gaullism... (RPR) |
386,623 | 1.33% | |
| Huguette Bouchardeau Huguette Bouchardeau Huguette Bouchardeau is a French socialist politician, as well as a publisher , essayist, and biographer.-Political career:... |
Unified Socialist Party Unified Socialist Party (France) The Unified Socialist Party was a socialist political party in France, founded on April 3, 1960. It was originally led by Édouard Depreux , and by Michel Rocard .- History :... (PSU) |
321,353 | 1.10% | |
| Total | 29,028,115 | 100% | ||
Second round
| Candidate | Party | Vote | Percent | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| François Mitterrand François Mitterrand François Maurice Adrien Marie Mitterrand was the 21st President of the French Republic and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra, serving from 1981 until 1995. He is the longest-serving President of France and, as leader of the Socialist Party, the only figure from the left so far elected President... |
Socialist Party (PS) | 15,708,262 | 51.76% | |
| Valéry Giscard d'Estaing Valéry Giscard d'Estaing Valéry Marie René Georges Giscard d'Estaing is a French centre-right politician who was President of the French Republic from 1974 until 1981... |
Union for French Democracy Union for French Democracy The Union for French Democracy was a French centrist political party. It was founded in 1978 as an electoral alliance to support President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing in order to counterbalance the Gaullist preponderance over the right. This name was chosen due to the title of Giscard d'Estaing's... (UDF) |
14,642,306 | 48.24% | |
| Total | 30,350,568 | 100% | ||
Giscard d'Estaing's government
The most important set of circumstances that gave François Mitterrand the advantage over President Valéry Giscard d'EstaingValéry Giscard d'Estaing
Valéry Marie René Georges Giscard d'Estaing is a French centre-right politician who was President of the French Republic from 1974 until 1981...
was Giscard’s incumbency itself. Usually, being an incumbent is an advantage. This was not the case, however, during the 1981 French elections. The incumbent seemed to have been cursed with many political misfortunes during his Presidential term; these crippling situations included internal matters that he could have controlled (and chose to ignore), and external forces that were beyond the incumbent’s control.
Centralisation
Internal political shortcomings seem to have done Giscard as much harm – if not more – as the external factors that were attributed to his electoral loss. Giscard, a pragmatic leader, had a haughty and disparaging personality. This made him appear inaccessible not only to the French people themselves but also to other cabinet members whose support he needed to reinforce his political legitimacy.Moreover, Giscard himself felt that others involved in the political machine were inept and ill-suited to correctly implement his important policy decisions; he therefore took over the most minute details in his policy-making, leaving his Prime Minister Jacques Chirac
Jacques Chirac
Jacques René Chirac is a French politician who served as President of France from 1995 to 2007. He previously served as Prime Minister of France from 1974 to 1976 and from 1986 to 1988 , and as Mayor of Paris from 1977 to 1995.After completing his studies of the DEA's degree at the...
, his ministers, and several layers of civil servants without duties, dissatisfied and ultimately without any power. Frustrated, Chirac resigned in 1976, built his own party
Rally for the Republic
The Rally for the Republic , was a French right-wing political party. Originating from the Union of Democrats for the Republic , it was founded by Jacques Chirac in 1976 and presented itself as the heir of Gaullism...
and proceeded to lambast Giscard's policies, starting with the December 1978 Call of Cochin
Call of Cochin
The Call of Cochin is a famous discourse published on December 6, 1978 by Jacques Chirac, former Prime Minister of France, president of the Rally for the Republic party, and mayor of Paris....
. The scene was set for the 1981 election when Chirac, having lost the "primary", failed to fully support Giscard in the second round, clearing the path for Mitterrand to take power.
Policies
Besides Giscard’s almost obsessive control over policy implementation, another internal political shortcoming of the incumbent appeared to be his ineffective tactics for deciding policy strategy. To the public at least, Giscard’s policies seemed to be sporadic, hasty, and ill-timed. His reforms proved unpopular with both the Left and the Right. In addition, Giscard abandoned other platforms that he had campaigned on in 1974. These policies were often couched as conspicuous (if not overly ambitious) pledges that ended up never quite being undertaken.(As an indication of Giscard's failing popularity, a poll taken in June 1980 showed that even some people on the Left (15% of Socialists and 13% of Communists) had liked and endorsed Giscard previously because of his reformist attitude. By April 1981, however, his support on the left had dropped dramatically (7% and 1% of Socialists and Communists respectively). And there was no offsetting rise in his support on the Right.
As the election wore on and Chirac joined the race, Giscard had to appeal to his Rightist constituency and drop most of these radical views. As a result, his popularity fell and he was thought of as an opportunist.
Finally, Giscard had promised to be open to the opposition in Parliament, but his behaviour in office did not match the expectations he had made for himself. Because of his personality and his control over policy implementation, the executive powers had become highly centralized; control was concentrated in the hands of Giscard and his cabinet composed of a few trusted friends—namely, Michel Poniatowski, a "faithful friend and advisor".
Electoral system
If Giscard’s internal political handicaps had effectively "crippled" him in the initial race, the external factors that decided the 1981 election were a deadly blow. Neatly summarized in an article by Hugh Dauncey: "It was Giscard's double misfortune that his presidency should be blighted both by unprecedented economic difficulties, and by a political system which was stubbornly unreceptive to the ouverture and centralist compromise that he required for his reforms to fully succeed". The electoral and party system (political system) in France had, indeed, undergone many critical changes during the previous years. In particular the introduction of the two-round, majority vote requirement played a large role in the election of 1981. The new electoral system divided the various Rightist and Leftist factions within themselves during the first round, but led to Right and Left polarization during the second round. This forced the Right and Left to strategize for both the first and second parts of the election.Thus in the first round each candidate must present him or herself as the better candidate while being careful not to remove all credibility of his/her fellow Right or Left candidates, as their opponents may have to run again in the next round against the opposing Right or Left candidate. (Much as is the case with the primaries in the USA).
In the second round, however, total unity must be achieved. This leads to the movement of both groups toward the center, with coalitions between center groups and extremists within the Right and Left.
Division Tactics
The new electoral "rules of the game," was one of the most notable factors that decided the 1981 election. The division within the Right between the two main Rightist factions, Giscard’s Union pour la démocratie Française (UDF), and Chirac’s neo-Gaullist Rassemblement pour la République (RPR) proved to be the final blow to Giscard (Painton, par. 12). When Chirac lost the "primary," he, in effect, refused to endorse Giscard as the candidate of the Right to the party constituents.There was also the tactical ingenuity on the part of the Left that brought about Mitterrand’s victory. As author Penniman points out, in a shrewd move, the Left gained "strength through disunity." The Right’s disunity between the UDF and RPR factions brought about the downfall of their major candidate. The split between the Left’s Socialist and Communist Parties, however, allowed the electorate to be more comfortable voting for the Socialists while gaining the Communist Party votes, which retains roughly 20% of the electorate votes.
Other factors
Other external factors gave Mitterrand and the Left added advantage.The economy was in poor shape: unemployment was high, inflation was rising, oil prices were rising.
Sources
- Bonfante, Jordan. "Holding Most of the Cards." TIME Europe 23 May 1988. 12 Nov. 2004 http://www.time.com/time/europe/timetrails/france/france880523.html.
- Dauncey, Hugh. "The Giscard Presidency 1974–1981: Towards a New France." Contemporary France Online. 12 Nov. 2004 http://www.well.ac.uk/cfol/giscard.asp.
- Girardet, Edward. "France Plunges into Socialist Era." Christian Science Monitor. 22 May 1981. LexisNexis. Stetson University Library, DeLand, FL. 22 Nov. 2004 http://web.lexis-nexis.com/universe/document?_m=0b62938a11c8ff8796a7e1338dc31677&_docnum=35&wchp=dGLbVlb-zSkVA&_md5=ddffd427f5ce0c99ebb83ad826e8ed25.
- MacCulloch, Nancy and Anita McCarthy, ed. France: History and Culture. Irwindale, CA: Barr Films, 1988. Watched 1 Nov. 2004.
- Mosby, Aline. "Presidential Hopefuls Wage 'Campaign à la Américaine.'" United Press International. 25 Apr. 1981. LexisNexis. Stetson University Library, DeLand, FL. 22 Nov. 2004 http://web.lexis-lexis.com/universe/document?_m=e20a0899fea40c11b4424b0e0fc8fa50&_docnum=15&wchp=dGLbVlb-zSkVA&_md5=925eac1ecd5a0c8ee9ee20d3a847b972.
- Painton, Frederick. "France Chooses Change." TIME Europe 18 May 1981. 12 Nov. 2004 http://www.time.com/time/europe/timetrails/france/france810518.html.
- Penniman, Howard, ed. France at the Polls, 1981 and 1986: Three National Elections. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1988.
- Safran, William. The French Polity. New York: Longman, 1998.
External links
- http://www.ina.fr/archivespourtous/index.php?vue=notice&from=fulltext&full=d%E9bat+giscard+mitterrand&num_notice=2&total_notices=67 Radio-TV debate Valéry Giscard d'Estaing/François Mitterrand
- http://www.ina.fr/archivespourtous/index.php?vue=notice&from=tl__ogp_int_parcours&num_notice=2&id_notice=I00002041 Announcement of the result of the second round on TV