Mitterrand or Giscard d'Estaing? The socialist or the outgoing president? On May 10, 1981, France was torn between the two men. Tensions pitted the majority against the opposition throughout the campaign. At 8 pm sharp, Etienne Mougeotte and Jean-Pierre Elkabbach give the results of the presidential election on Antenne 2 and Europe 1. Viewers are concentrated in front of their television sets. An animation similar to that of the Minitel puts an end to the suspense. Yet late in the first round, François Mitterrand becomes the fourth president of the Fifth Republic, totaling 51.76% of the vote, and the first Socialist to come to power.
Forty years later, Franceinfo is preparing to revive this historic moment.
According to our information, on Monday May 10, at 8 p.m. sharp, the channel 27 channel will rebroadcast this extraordinary election night.
For about three hours, viewers will find the two presenters of the time, accompanied on the set by political scientist and historian René Rémond, who has now disappeared.
A device completed at the time by duplexes made by journalist Jacques Merlino from rue de Solferino, at the former headquarters of the Socialist Party.
Participation of election witnesses
This replay of the election of the successor of Valéry Giscard d'Estaing will be interspersed with testimonies and analyzes of today. Franceinfo has already planned interventions by political editorialists and journalists such as Nathalie Saint-Cricq, Louis Laforge and Gilles Bornstein. But also the participation of witnesses of the election, thus making it possible to assess the evolution of the presidency of this left-wing man over the years as well as of France under his mandate, lasting fourteen years, a record under the Fifth Republic. And also to remember that at the time, the third man in this presidential election was none other than Jacques Chirac, successor to François Mitterrand in 1995.