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Challenging the ‘D‐Mark Zone’: Agenda‐Setting on EMU and the Strategy of Indirection Under Mitterrand, 1981–1989

Kenneth Dyson and Kevin Featherstone

in The Road To Maastricht: Negotiating Economic and Monetary Union

Mitterrand's beliefs about Europe and EMU and his governing style are analysed. The history of his engagement with this issue is traced from the ERM crisis of 1983 and the issue of reconciling ... More

Mitterrand's beliefs about Europe and EMU and his governing style are analysed. The history of his engagement with this issue is traced from the ERM crisis of 1983 and the issue of reconciling socialism to the ERM through to the Balladur Memorandum and the French management of the Delors Committee in 1988–89. The hesitations of Bérégovoy are examined, alongside the role of presidential leadership in taking an active role after the Delors Report, especially through Guigou.Less

French Strategy for the IGC: Making EMU Irreversible

Kenneth Dyson and Kevin Featherstone

in The Road To Maastricht: Negotiating Economic and Monetary Union

Presidential leadership is examined in the context of German unification. Particular attention is given to the construction of the French negotiating team and the domestic bureaucratic politics of ... More

Presidential leadership is examined in the context of German unification. Particular attention is given to the construction of the French negotiating team and the domestic bureaucratic politics of EMU, especially involving Dumas, Guigou, Bérégovoy, and Trichet. Bérégovoy's idea of a third route to EMU is also considered. The key focus is on how French negotiators pursued their objectives, especially the idea of irreversibility.Less

EMU, the Mitterrand Presidency, and French Political Tradition

Kenneth Dyson and Kevin Featherstone

in The Road To Maastricht: Negotiating Economic and Monetary Union

Mitterrand's leadership role is situated within the context of French political tradition. Particular attention is paid to the tradition of the republican state and its relationship to the idea of ... More

Mitterrand's leadership role is situated within the context of French political tradition. Particular attention is paid to the tradition of the republican state and its relationship to the idea of ‘economic government’. Other important influences are from the idea of French leadership in Europe and primacy to construction européenne. This idea has, in turn, been closely linked to the franc stable policy and the power of the Trésor. Perhaps most central of all has been the search for economic independence from the USA and the linkage between EMU and a rebalancing of economic power in the international monetary system.Less

‘A building, not a monument’: the construction of the Bastille Opéra

in The Place de la Bastille: The story of a quartier

As president of France, one of François Mitterrand's grands projets, or grands travaux was the Bastille Opéra. Politics, more than musical or aesthetic considerations, marked the Opéra's history, ... More

As president of France, one of François Mitterrand's grands projets, or grands travaux was the Bastille Opéra. Politics, more than musical or aesthetic considerations, marked the Opéra's history, which was evident in the decision to locate the new opera house in the Place de la Bastille. The architect who designed the building, Carlos Ott, wanted to depart a little from the Place de la Bastille to avoid overshadowing the July Column, an emblematic monument. Because of these political and artistic issues, those behind the project raced against time to get the Opéra ready for its gala opening in July 1989 in celebration of the 200th anniversary of the French Revolution. The opening was a spectacle devised by the American Bob Wilson, while ‘Bastille Day’ featured concerts conducted by Leonard Bernstein and Georges Prêtre.Less

The Timeliness of Duruflé's Requiem

Leslie A. Sprout

in The Musical Legacy of Wartime France

Duruflé's Requiem is notable for its faithful use of Solesmes plainchant and for the long postwar denial of its historical connections to wartime France by critics obsessed with its “timelessness.” ... More

Duruflé's Requiem is notable for its faithful use of Solesmes plainchant and for the long postwar denial of its historical connections to wartime France by critics obsessed with its “timelessness.” Selections of the work were sung at the 1996 funeral of President François Mitterrand, who died amid controversy about his own wartime past. The Requiem is unique among Duruflé's compositions in its symphonically conceived orchestral accompaniment to choral parts based on plainchant. I argue that Duruflé, who originally envisioned his Requiem as an organ suite, adapted the work to his 1941 Vichy commission to write a symphonic poem destined for performance by one of occupied Paris's symphony orchestras, which received state subsidies to perform new French works, including state commissions.Less

‘Let's have some sun!’: post-Gaullism and the Mitterrand years

in The Place de la Bastille: The story of a quartier

Georges Pompidou (1969–1974), who succeeded Charles de Gaulle as president of France, embarked on grandiose modernisation projects for Paris which included the construction of the Centre Beaubourg ... More

Georges Pompidou (1969–1974), who succeeded Charles de Gaulle as president of France, embarked on grandiose modernisation projects for Paris which included the construction of the Centre Beaubourg (later renamed Centre Georges Pompidou), a major cultural centre that housed a large public library. His modernisation had little direct effect on the Faubourg-Saint-Antoine, which appears to have been fairly quiet on the political front. One exception occurred on December 19, 1969, when Pierre Goldman, a leftist militant, was accused of robbing the Farmachi pharmacy (now the Pharmacie de l'Opéra Bastille) and killing the pharmacist and her assistant. He was condemned to life imprisonment in 1974, only to be acquitted in 1976 and released from prison shortly afterwards. The transformation of the Faubourg to Place de la Bastille continued during the administration of Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, although the classes dangereuses were still in evidence. In May 1981, a delirious crowd gathered at the Place de la Bastille to celebrate the victory of François Mitterrand, who defeated Giscard in the second round of the presidential election.Less

Morality

Herman T. Salton

in Dangerous Diplomacy: Bureaucracy, Power Politics, and the Role of the UN Secretariat in Rwanda

This chapter traces the link between the muscular approach to peacekeeping advocated by Boutros-Ghali early in his term, the ‘moral’ purpose he attached to his role as Secretary-General, his ... More

This chapter traces the link between the muscular approach to peacekeeping advocated by Boutros-Ghali early in his term, the ‘moral’ purpose he attached to his role as Secretary-General, his predilection for DPA over DPKO, and his performance in Rwanda. Following a chronological trajectory from 1990 to 1994, the chapter considers that link by exploring the idea of UN ‘moral authority’ and the reasons behind Boutros-Ghali’s support for it. The chapter then contrasts such an idea with Boutros-Ghali’s relations with Presidents Mitterrand of France, Habyarimana of Rwanda, and Mubarak of Egypt. Three questions arise: did Boutros-Ghali’s proximity to one side of Rwanda’s ethnic divide (the Hutus) prior to becoming SG affect his relations with the other (the Tutsis)? Did such proximity compromise his independence, neutrality, and impartiality—three sources of the SG’s moral authority? And was his conduct compatible with his ‘moral’ view of the UN?Less

Conclusion

Sarah Farmer

in Rural Inventions: The French Countryside after 1945

The postwar history of rural France has often been experienced and analyzed as one of perpetual decline measured by rural outmigration and the death of the peasantry as a social class. While this ... More

The postwar history of rural France has often been experienced and analyzed as one of perpetual decline measured by rural outmigration and the death of the peasantry as a social class. While this book has underlined and explored these dislocations and ruptures, it has also pushed back against a declensionist narrative by showing ways in which the French countryside was renewed and changed in the decades of the 1960s ad 1970s by social practices and culture representations that attached symbolic and material value to rural life. Rural society did not die when the peasantry disappeared. Rather, it continued to be reinvented.Less

The Misfits

Jean Pisani-Ferry

in The Euro Crisis and Its Aftermath

France played a major role in promoting and advancing the project to create the euro. But by the time the euro was launched on January 1, 1999, the new currency was largely ignored. In the meantime, ... More

France played a major role in promoting and advancing the project to create the euro. But by the time the euro was launched on January 1, 1999, the new currency was largely ignored. In the meantime, Europe had become a politically divisive factor for both left and right, with cracks appearing as soon as 1992, when French President François Mitterand put the Maastricht Treaty up for referendum. France’s implicit pact became that European integration would remain on the external agenda, on the condition that domestic consequences remained minimal. As a result, it ended up lacking the policy consistency it needed to thrive under the new circumstances and regime. The same was true in Italy, where little was done to foster productivity and growth despite how hard Italy had fought for its qualification. Both missed the opportunity to profit from a change they had ardently called for.Less