Paris (AFP)
On May 10, 1981, the socialist François Mitterrand won the second round of the presidential election against Valéry Giscard d'Estaing (UDF) who was seeking a second term.
Forty years later, five highlights of this victory.
- 8:00 p.m .: Mitterrand's face is emerging -
On May 10, 1981 at 8:00 p.m., several million French people discovered, with their eyes riveted on their television sets or their ears glued to the radio, Mitterrand's victory over Giscard.
At TF1, the giant barometer whose temperature rises next to the portrait of each candidate according to the votes garnered, finished its race higher for the first.
At Antenne 2, it is the face of Mitterrand building himself brick by brick from the skull on a screen with a blue, white and red background that puts an end to the suspense.
Score without appeal: he won 51.7% of the vote against 48.2% for the outgoing president.
Among them, voters rejoice, others freeze, worried, or even cry, devastated.
On television sets, some presenters are struggling to hide their dismay at the first victory of a socialist under the Fifth Republic.
After 23 continuous years in power, the right, weakened by its divisions, has fallen.
- Daniele and the rose -
It is in Château-Chinon, his stronghold in the Nièvre, that François Mitterrand learns that he has won.
When he comes to the microphone, he first salutes the "forces of youth" who gave him the victory.
His wife Danielle, met in 1944 in the Resistance and with whom he had three sons, is by his side.
Simple and discreet, she has strong convictions on the left.
To the point of explaining late, in 2007, that it moved away from the PS because its leaders "do not have the socialist fiber".
- Clamours at Solférino and party at the Bastille -
In Paris, anonymous, militants, or sympathizers rushed to the vicinity of the headquarters of the PS, rue de Solférino, from the first rumors of victory.
At 8:00 pm the crowd explodes with joy and shouts at the top of their lungs "Mitterrand president!".
Same cheers inside, when the first secretary of the PS Lionel Jospin takes the podium and evokes "the calm and serene joy" of the militants.
Soon, despite the threat of a heavy downpour that will eventually erupt, another party is in full swing.
Place de la Bastille a crowd of around 200,000 people gathered in front of a rolling podium, equipped with giant screens and loudspeakers.
We hug each other among strangers, we laugh, we sing, we dance.
On stage, Bernard Lavilliers, Marie-Paule Belle, Jean-Louis Trintignant or Coluche sing or greet the crowd.
Lionel Jospin is very applauded.
Michel Rocard and Pierre Juquin (PCF) are there, rivalries and divisions as dissolved in the general jubilation.
- Homage to the Pantheon -
He wanted a strong gesture to mark his entrance to the Elysee Palace.
On May 21, François Mitterrand organized a solemn tribute to the Panthéon, in the Latin Quarter, and placed a red rose on the graves of Jean Jaurès, illustrious socialist, Jean Moulin, martyr of the Resistance, and Victor Schoelcher, figure of abolition of slavery in the West Indies.
The crowd is dense, the numerous personalities, Daniel Barenboïm and Placido Domingo are on hand to make the Ode to Joy and La Marseillaise heard.
"After this song of fervor, repeated by the crowd, François Mitterrand, to the dismay of the police, was swallowed up by the demonstrators, even losing sight of his Prime Minister Pierre Mauroy, despite the colossus build of the latter" , AFP wrote that day.
"Under a heavy rain which gave birth to a forest of multicolored umbrellas, the Head of State had the greatest difficulty getting back into his car", a 604, which took him to the Elysee Palace.
- "Goodbye" by Giscard -
Their handover interview lasted 47 minutes.
After seven years at the Elysée Palace, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing officially gave way to François Mitterrand on May 21, 1981.
To the French, VGE sent two days earlier on television a personal "departure message", with an astonishing end.
After saying "Goodbye" in a careful tone, the outgoing president gets up from his desk and walks away towards the back of the room.
The cameras follow him, then he disappears from their field, leaving them for a long time fixed on his empty chair while the Marseillaise resonates.
When he left the Elysée on the 21st, supporters called out "Giscard see you soon!"
They do not know that Mitterrand is in the place for 14 years.
A record.
© 2021 AFP