ABSTRACT
Throughout the Fourth Republic, Francois Mitterrand was far more interested in colonial affairs than in those of the old continent. His position was made clear in a report presented to the 1952 UDSR Congress. ‘While strongly approving postwar European initiatives by French governments, Mitterrand accused the same governments of having failed to secure allied recognition of France’s supremacy in the Western Mediterranean. Mitterrand’s election as President represented the triumph of an outsider with no experience of European affairs, and with a priority interest in domestic policy: of Mitterrand’s 110 Propositions, only three were directly concerned with Europe. When it was considered, European policy was envisaged as an extension of domestic policy, with French solutions extrapolated to the wider European sphere. In 1981, the Socialists were insistent that the central problems facing the Community were those of policies rather than institutions; by 1984, Mitterrand had become the leading European statesman advocating institutional reform.
