ABSTRACT
Mitterrand's victory had been expected. What Mitterrand might do with that victory remained unclear. The kind of government Mitterrand proposed and the policies the Rocard government expected to follow had been presented only in general terms. The ideologically tinted programs of 1981 were ancient history, and the declaration of general policy made by Rocard at the end of June 1988 was deliberately down to earth and modest. In 1986 the Right had hastened to abolish the tax on large fortunes introduced by the Socialists in 1982. This political error ended by costing Chirac votes. The tension between Mitterrand and Rocard was described in the title of a journalist's book as "quiet hatred", although the hatred seems to have been mostly on Mitterrand's side, whereas Rocard strove to gain his difficult chief's approval. Seven years after the turnaround of 1983, the Socialist party still had not redefined its ideology to fit its policies.
