Latest news with #Mitterrand
NZ Herald
5 days ago
- Politics
- NZ Herald
French President Francois Mitterrand gave green light to bombing – Rainbow Warrior: A Forgotten History
'He was lying because he was involved.' Over the course of the series we've heard from three key French witnesses about Mitterrand's level of responsibility in the bombing of the Greenpeace boat in Auckland Harbour 40 years ago. Colonel Jean-Luc Kister, the man who placed the bombs on the hull of the boat and who would go on to lead the combat dive unit, said Mitterrand would have had to sign off on the operation. 'Francois Mitterrand, yes, it's clear that such a clandestine operation at that level, they request all the time the green fire from the President.' (Kister's phrase 'green fire' – a direct translation of the French 'feu vert' - means the green light.) Kister said Mitterrand would have had to go if it was proven he knew about the operation. Hubert Vedrine, the former French Minister of Foreign Affairs, who for decades was one of Mitterrand's closest confidants, says the French President told him face-to-face that he had 'confirmed the instructions' his Minister of Defence had given to the DGSE, the French spy service. However, Vedrine maintained that those instructions were simply to 'neutralise' the zone around the French nuclear testing site at Mururoa and to continue the tests. From there, it was up to the defence ministry and the spy service to put those instructions into action. He said there was a big gap between Mitterrand's instructions and what happened. But Vedrine – who, in one form or another has advised every French president over the past five decades – said in another context that he was 'not 100% for transparency'. He was speaking in relation to former French President Francois Hollande's acknowledgement that he had ordered the assassinations of French citizens who had joined Isis – another off-the-books operation by France, shrouded in state secrecy. Plenel said Defence Minister Charles Hernu and DGSE boss Admiral Pierre Lacoste were forced out of their jobs after the French Government admitted that the Rainbow Warrior bombers were following orders. But the parliamentary inquiry that was promised never eventuated as it would have been too dangerous for Mitterrand. While France paid compensation to the family of Fernando Pereira, Greenpeace and the New Zealand Government, Mitterrand remained in power for another 10 years. He died a year later in 1996 from prostate cancer – an illness he had concealed from the French public throughout his presidency. Rainbow Warrior: A Forgotten History is a six-episode true crime series. Follow the series on iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes are released on Thursdays. The series is hosted and produced by John Daniell and Noelle McCarthy of Bird of Paradise Productions in co-production with the NZ Herald. Rainbow Warrior: A Forgotten History is supported by New Zealand on Air.
LeMonde
21-06-2025
- Politics
- LeMonde
A captivating investigation into a compromising photo of a president
This is the story of a compromising photograph, one that had stayed secret for half a century. It was finally published in 1994, on the cover of Une jeunesse française ("A French youth") by Pierre Péan, a book that traced the early life and first political activities of President François Mitterrand (in office 1981-1995). In the black-and-white shot, Mitterand is 26 years old and wears his hair slicked back, with a white pocket square folded in a triangle in his jacket pocket. He is listening attentively to Philippe Pétain, then 86 and the leader of Vichy France, who had received him as part of a delegation of managers from a prisoner aid center. The photograph was taken on October 15, 1942, in Vichy, where Mitterrand stayed for several months, mingling with Pétain-aligned circles, before he eventually forged closer ties to the Resistance. For much of his political career, Mitterrand denied this troublesome past, and later downplayed his degree of involvement with Vichy. When it was made public, the photograph caused a scandal. "It is difficult to discover that Mitterrand was not only Barrèsian in literature (…) but also a Croix-de-Feu in politics," said Mitterand's ex-prime minister Lionel Jospin, in 1994, referring to the antisemitic writer Maurice Barrès and a nationalist organization of veterans from the inter-war period. In the late 1970s, the journalist Patrice Duhamel heard about a mysterious document incriminating the Socialist politician for the first time. When Péan's explosive book was published, Duhamel wondered: How did this provocative photo remain hidden for so long? Much later, the mystery came back to haunt him. He decided to investigate, which led to a captivating book: La Photo ("The Photo," untranslated). Into the fireplace
