Mitterand best president - poll

The late Socialist Francois Mitterrand is seen as France’s best president since the Fifth Republic began in 1958, more popular even than World War II hero Charles de Gaulle, the republic’s first president.

Mitterrand, who led the country from 1981 to 1995, was favoured by 35% of respondents in a poll in the left-leaning daily Liberation newspaper, five points ahead of the conservative de Gaulle.