information:extraction, structural:scholar_edition
First Cohabitation

Before the 1986 legislative campaign, proportional representation was instituted in accordance with the 110 Propositions. It did not prevent, however, the victory of the Rally for the Republic / Union for French Democracy (RPR/UDF) coalition. François Mitterrand thus named the RPR leader Jacques Chirac as Prime Minister. This period of government, with a President and a Prime Minister who came from two opposite coalitions, was the first time that such a combination had occurred under the Fifth Republic, and came to be known as " Cohabitation ".

Chirac mostly handled domestic policy while François Mitterrand concentrated on his "reserved domain" of foreign affairs and defence. However, several conflicts erupted between the two. In one example, Mitterrand refused to sign executive decrees of liberalisation, obliging Chirac to pass the measures through parliament instead. François Mitterrand also reportedly gave covert support to some social movements, notably the student revolt against the university reform (Devaquet Bill). Benefiting from the difficulties of Chirac's cabinet, the President's popularity increased.

With the polls running in his favour, François Mitterrand announced his candidacy in the 1988 presidential election. He proposed a moderate programme (promising "neither nationalisation nor privatization") and advocated a "united France," and laid out his policy priorities in his "Letter to the French People." He obtained 34% of the votes in the first round, then faced Chirac in the second, and was re-elected with 54% of the votes. François Mitterrand thus became the first President to be elected twice by universal suffrage.