ABSTRACT
The election of the Fifth Republic's first left-wing president in 1981 set the stage for a decade of striking and often unexpected political developments. The apparent disarray of his opponents undoubtedly gave Giscard d'Estaing a false sense of security as the election approached. His inability to end the economic crisis and a sense of lack of direction the reforming energy of the first years of his term had long since faded cost him critical votes. Foreign affairs were secondary in the French Socialist's minds to domestic changes. For Jacques Chirac part, the Socialist party candidate Francois Mitterrand benefited from his party's split with the Communists. In foreign policy, Mitterrand proved to be closer to the Americans than his conservative predecessors. A socio logical inquiry at the end of the 1980s concluded that a substantial part of the population considered non-European immigrants a threat to France's national and cultural identity.
