ABSTRACT
A great part of the Socialists’ success in the 1970s was due to Mitterrand’s leadership. His talent as an organiser and as a negotiator, as well as a boundless ambition served by long experience (he first won ministerial office in 1947), enabled him to grasp the party leadership at Épinay in June 1971 and to see off all challenges (notably from Rocard in 1979) thereafter. This was also, however, made possible by his credibility as a presidential candidate after the respectable defeats by de Gaulle in 1965 and Giscard in 1974. A stature unequalled by any Socialist leader since Léon Blum in the 1930s helped him to dominate the Communists within the left-wing alliance and to win the presidency in May 1981. Within the PS, he earned the nickname of ‘the Prince’ and ‘the Pope’; after a few years in the Élysée, he was promoted simply to Dieu.
