FRANÇOIS MITTERRAND

ACTING

François Marie Adrien Maurice Mitterrand (26 October 1916 – 8 January 1996) was President of France, serving under that position from 1981 to 1995, the longest time in office in the history of France.

As First Secretary of the Socialist Party, he was the first left-wing politician to assume the presidency under the Fifth Republic. Reflecting family influences, François Mitterrand started political life on the Catholic nationalist right.