French Presidential Election of 1981
Mitterrand beat Giscard 51.8 to 48.2, the first left president of the Fifth Republic.
Overview
The May 1981 runoff's night of the first-time left gave France its first socialist president of the Fifth Republic, Francois Mitterrand, over incumbent Valery Giscard d'Estaing by 51.8 to 48.2 on 81 percent turnout. Mitterrand dissolved the assembly, won a leftist majority, formed a government with communist ministers, nationalized banks and industries, abolished the death penalty, and decentralized the state. The experiment's 1983 austerity turn marked the era's ideological boundary. The alternance of 1981 proved the Fifth Republic's institutions could host a peaceful left transformation.
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