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Line 1: {{Useful Notes}} {{cleanup\|We should give the Presidents of the Fifth Republic their own pages, one per President, to match the UK and US.}} {{quote\|'''Article I''' - Men are born and remain free and equal in rights. Social distinctions can be founded only on the common utility. '''Article II''' - The goal of any political association is the conservation of the natural and imprescriptible [i.e., inviolable] rights of man. These rights are liberty, property, safety and resistance against oppression. Line 63 ⟶ 64: ** While he and his party initially attempted to follow a left-wing, Keynesian program in office, backtracking ensued rather quickly after it led to capital flight and problems with France's adherence to the [[European Union\|Exchange Rate Mechanism]], and for the rest of his term governance followed a centrist approach. Some of his term's policies, such as an increased minimum wage, the abolishment of the death penalty, the solidarity tax on wealth or the reduction of the legal workweek to 39 hours, have survived to this day despite being at times repealed (the solidarity tax on wealth was canceled in 1986 by a right-wing government, only to be reinstated in 1988 when the Socialists regained the Prime Minister's office) or failed to be implemented initially (the promised 35-hour workweek came about in 2000). Controversially, Mitterrand ordered the bombing of Greenpeace's ''Rainbow Warrior'' ship in 1985, is [[Written by the Winners\|alleged]] to have sabotaged Western involvement during the [[Useful Notes/Rwanda\|Rwandan]] Genocide due to [[Misplaced Nationalism]] and favouritism towards the Rwandan dictatorship, abused the French anti-terrorist laws and established a special monitoring office to hide Mazarine's existence from the public, was [[Open Secret\|revealed]] in 1994 to have held a bureaucratic post in Pétain's government, and his Prime Ministers after 1988 presided over a long string of scandals that tarnished the party, from the usual corruption up to knowingly giving haemophiliacs [[wikipedia:Infected blood scandal (France)\|HIV-infected blood]]. By the end of his term, the Socialists and their allies had become so unpopular they'd suffered [[Landslide Election\|crushing defeats]] in the local and parliamentary elections of 1992 and 1993. [[File:Chirac_3082.jpg\|frame]] * '''Jacques Chirac''' (1995-2007): Has an old reputation for being a crook and a liar, and yet managing to remain sympathetic to the public. Apparently, succeeded in winning the 1995 elections because a puppet satirizing him in the news-comedy show ''[[Les Guignols Dede ~~L Info~~l'info]]'' was very funny and likeable to viewers; his 2002 [[Landslide Election]] victory was because his opponent was a far-right nationalist. Became famous overseas for opposing the invasion of Iraq in 2003. The main "antagonist" of ''[[Asterix\|Obelix and Co.]]'' was based on him (during his days as Prime Minister). Some would [[Never Live It Down\|never live down his comment]] that there were too many immigrants in France, not to mention ''"the noise and the smell"'' that'd badger honest French citizens. Has a bit of a reputation as unprincipled: he campaigned in 1995 promising to "heal the social fracture" only to appoint a government that tried to push reforms of public services, controversially announced more atomic tests in 1995 before abandoning them after mere months, made the ''Call of Cochin'' in 1976 criticising the EEC-friendly Gaullists only to become a strong EU supporter in office, and so on. His first government, led by Alain Juppé, bombed so spectacularly (proposed changes to labour laws and public healthcare in 1995 led to France's largest strikes since 1968) he dissolved the National Assembly and called fresh elections to try and get a stronger mandate. This move backfired when a leftist coalition won a large majority, leading to a cohabitation with the socialist Prime Minister Lionel Jospin from 1997 to 2002, and making Chirac the first President to lose a snap election he called. D'Estaing holds a lifelong grudge against him because he feels that Chirac intentionally split the vote and helped Mitterrand win in 1981. Was previously the Prime Minister twice (between 1974-1976 and 1986-1988) and Mayor of Paris between 1977-1995, during which time he was accused of corruption and ultimately convicted after leaving office. The French electorate's view of him when he left office can be largely summed up as "good riddance" (and he was also severely unpopular in his first two years in office), whereas nowadays it's a bit closer to "y'know, he probably wasn't as bad as we thought." ** An interesting piece of trivia: thanks to the 2002 election, Chirac simultaneously holds the record for winning a presidential election with the lowest percentage of votes (19,88% in the first round) and highest percentage of votes (82,21% in the second round), because the far-right candidate Jean-Marie Le Pen had just enough votes to beat the socialist candidate Lionel Jospin in the first round (16,86% to 16,18%) thanks to vote-splitting among the left but drew absolutely no sympathy outside of his electorate. [[File:Sarkozy_4817.jpg\|frame]]