Utopia Collapses

François Mitterrand came to power in May 1981 with an agenda of 110 social reforms, a whole supermarketful of utopian socialist propositions. On May 10, when the election results were released, the progressive intelligentsia gathered at the Place de la Bastille to celebrate the passing of the “old regime” and the dawning of a marvelous new day, for France first and then for the rest of mankind (Nicaragua, Cuba, Namibia). It was a ritual re-enactment of the storming of the Bastille in 1789, minus the massacres. But when Mitterrand took four Communists into his government, all at once massacre was in the wind. Indeed, a left-wing Socialist declared in the National Assembly: “We must do better than Robespierre; heads must roll.”

In its first two years, the Mitterrand government carried out a sizable number of its 110 “reforms,” leaving France impoverished and horrified. Here was a nation that was a torchbearer of enlightenment and culture, suddenly intent on “changing structures and mentalities” and installing “socialism forever.” The work of destruction, baptized “reforms,” was carried out by the safely majoritarian “union de la gauche.”

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Thomas Molnar

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François Mitterrand came to power in May 1981 with an agenda of 110 social reforms, a whole supermarketful of utopian socialist propositions. On May 10, when the election results were released, the progressive intelligentsia gathered at the Place de la Bastille to celebrate the passing of the “old regime” and the dawning of a marvelous new day, for France first and then for the rest of mankind (Nicaragua, Cuba, Namibia). It was a ritual re-enactment of the storming of the Bastille in 1789, minus the massacres. But when Mitterrand took four Communists into his government, all at once massacre was in the wind. Indeed, a left-wing Socialist declared in the National Assembly: “We must do better than Robespierre; heads must roll.”

In its first two years, the Mitterrand government carried out a sizable number of its 110 “reforms,” leaving France impoverished and horrified. Here was a nation that was a torchbearer of enlightenment and culture, suddenly intent on “changing structures and mentalities” and installing “socialism forever.” The work of destruction, baptized “reforms,” was carried out by the safely majoritarian “union de la gauche.”