Danielle Gouze
Danielle Mitterrand in Toulouse in April 2007)
First Lady of France
In office 21 May 1981 – 17 May 1995
President	François Mitterrand
Preceded by	Anne-Aymone Giscard d'Estaing
Succeeded by	Bernadette Chirac
Born	29 October 1924 (1924-10-29) (age 85)
Spouse(s)	François Mitterrand
Children	Pascal Mitterrand Jean-Christophe Mitterrand Gilbert Mitterrand

Danielle Mitterrand (born Danielle Émilienne Isabelle Gouze 29 October 1924 in Verdun, Meuse) is the widow of François Mitterrand and president of the foundation France Libertés Fondation Danielle Mitterrand.

Contents 1 Biography 2 Opinions 3 Awards 4 Works 5 References 6 External links

[edit] Biography

When she was seventeen years old, her family (her parents were professors) aided the French Resistance and helped lodge men of the Maquis (French Resistance) , and she became a liaison officer in the Resistance. She met François Mitterrand there, and married him after the liberation three years later, on 28 October 1944.

She founded her foundation in 1986 with the fusion of three smaller associations started in 1981.

Danielle Mitterrand has three sons: Pascal (who died in childhood), Jean-Christophe and Gilbert Mitterrand.

[edit] Opinions

Mrs. Mitterrand has been a long time supporter of Cuba and its Marxist-Leninist government.^[1] She also supported the Soviet-backed Sandinistas when her late husband gave them military aid in their war against US-backed forces in Nicaragua.^[2] She is very critical with respect to Turkey, opposing its accession to the European Union and also supportive of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) independence movement which is recognized as a terrorist organization by both EU and the USA.^[3] She has voiced her views in favour of the Sahrawi^[4], Subcomandante Marcos^[5], and the Tibetan people^[6], among others.

She supported a "no" vote in the 2005 French referendum on the European Constitution: "I denounce the power of the economy over people, a system that turns individuals into elements in an economic equation, does not respect the poor and excludes everyone that does not live up to the principle of profitability." ^[7]

[edit] Awards

In 1996 she was one of the winners of the North-South Prize.^[8]

[edit] Works

• These men are first our brothers (Ces hommes sont avant tout nos frères), Ramsay, 1996, on the Indians of Chiapas
• Torture in Tunisia: Committee for freedom and human rights in Tunisia (La torture en Tunisie : Comité pour le respect des libertés et des droits de l’homme en Tunisie), Le temps des cerises, 2000

[edit] References

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Danielle Mitterrand

• France Libertés Fondation Danielle Mitterrand

Honorary titles
Preceded by Anne-Aymone Giscard d'Estaing	First Lady of France 1981 - 1995	Succeeded by Bernadette Chirac