François Mitterrand has dominated French history over the last 30 years. Through the longevity of his political career, which spanned two republics; through his rise to the highest office, which he held for 14 years; and through his leadership of the Left, François Mitterrand’s political destiny has been exceptional. Successively leader of a Resistance party a year after leaving Vichy, a minister at the age of 29, leader of the anti-Gaullist movement, the man who reinvented the Socialist Party, President of the Republic and architect of the Maastricht Treaty establishing the European Union, he appears to be a character straight out of a novel, whose life is divided into distinct chapters.