Conclusion

Abstract

It is difficult to present definitive conclusions about a subject which, in many ways, is still ongoing. For although we have come to the end of the Mitterrand era per se, following the completion of Mitterrand#x2019;s second presidential term in May 1995 and his death in the ensuing January, many of the projects begun by Mitterrand himself, or under the aegis of Mitterrand as president, have yet to come to fruition. The impact of his legacy on France as it embarks on a new journey into the twenty-first century under Chirac, is, as the chapters in this book demonstrate, profound and wide-ranging. At the same time, Mitterrand#x2019;s own life story, variegated and multifaceted, and distinct from common experience, adds colour and interest to his legacy. His story is all the more unusual in that, as time was running out, he saw to it that those aspects of his life which might be seen subsequently as potentially suspect and questionable were given a public airing - perhaps in an effort to manipulate and guide public opinion, to ‘have the last word’ on his life, even after death. These end-of-life ‘revelations’ on his past (as a student with nationalist sympathies, as a minor official in Vichy and admirer of Pétain, and as a friend of Renté Bousquet, the Vichy chief of police) and existing life (his second family) were important not for what they revealed about Mitterrand – as Eric Duhamel notes, most of this was known already – but primarily for the way in which they have muddied the waters regarding history#x2019;s assessment of Mitterrand. In many respects, the jury is still out on the former president; it will be some time before history#x2019;s judgement of Mitterrand finally crystallizes.