Mitterrand was close to the extreme right before World War II, and started his political career after the war with funds of the founder of l'Oréal Eugène Schueller. Source: "La main droite de Dieu", by E. Faux, T. Legrand and G. Pérez, Paris 1994. See also:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugène_Schueller .

He was an important minister during the Algerian War, and in 1962 a defence witness (together with Jean-Marie Le Pen) at the trial of the officers involved in the Algiers putsch (about the putsch, see:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algiers_putsch ). Since then, the French extreme right always voted for him.

In 1982, Mitterrand organized the rise of Le Pen's party (  http://michel.delord.free.fr/maindroite.pdf ) and, in 1984, he was at the origin of the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior (  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinking_of_the_Rainbow_Warrior ).

Ségolène Royal owes her full career to Mitterrand. She was his "chargée de mission" (official representative and special adviser) in 1982-88.

Most young French do not know all that. Nobody tells them. Buffet, Bové, Besancenot... stay silent.

About the euro-military policy put forward by François Bayrou, see:

 http://www.bayrou.fr/propositions/defense.html

 http://www.bayrou.fr/discours/bayrou-relationsinter-220606.html


Whatever the result of the election will be, the basic problems will remain the same.




Géraldine