Travel companion of François Mitterrand and faithful among the faithful of the socialist president, the former minister Louis Mexandeau, who was also deputy of Calvados for nearly thirty years, died Monday at the age of 92. With other historical barons of Mitterrandism, such as Louis Mermaz, Pierre Joxe, Charles Hernu or Paul Quilès, he had participated in the conquest of power on May 10, 1981 and in the first years of the left in government.
Minister of Posts, Telegraphs and Telephones (PTT) between 1981 and 1986, he had supported François Mitterrand from his first presidential campaign in 1965. Louis Mexandeau ended his life in Saint-Gingolph, on the shores of Lake Geneva, where he was established and where he will now rest, said in a press release the PS deputy Arthur Delaporte, one of his successors to the deputation.
Tribute to “intelligence”, “values” and “convictions”
“His commitment to Calvados and his political dedication remain a source of inspiration,” said Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne, herself elected from the department. For Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the death of the socialist “turns a page in the history of the PS at the time of the common program”. The former head of government, ex-socialist Bernard Cazeneuve, paid tribute to the “intelligence”, the “historical culture”, the “values” and the “convictions” of Louis Mexandeau, in a message published on X (formerly Twitter).
Among his “convictions”, his attachment to public school. In 1977, then national secretary of the PS responsible for educational issues, he proposed the nationalization of private schools and triggered an outcry, especially on the right. This is what had cost him, according to the deputy Arthur Delaporte, the post of Minister of National Education when François Mitterrand won the Elysée in 1981. The debate on private schools, and the “school war” which s ensued, dragged socialist power into one of its worst crises a few years later.
At the Ministry of PTT, Louis Mexandeau had launched in 1982 the minitel, a small computer terminal available to all French households, a technological revolution before being overtaken by the advent of the Internet. During François Mitterrand’s second term, he was also a member of the government, this time as Secretary of State for Veterans
Proud to be a socialist
Louis Mexandeau sometimes marked his loyalty to François Mitterrand by a sartorial mimicry. He happened to present himself decked out, like his mentor, in a large black hat and a red scarf. But it is also as a figure of the Socialist Party and at the local level that Louis Mexandeau distinguished himself. A member of the rose party until the end of his life, he was, in 2018, 86 years old, the star of the PS congress, raising the room by recalling his “pride to be a socialist”.
“With the disappearance of Louis Mexandeau, it is a statesman (…), and the emblematic figure of socialism in Calvados who died”, commented the deputy Arthur Delaporte. Originally from the north of France, Louis Mexandeau settled in Normandy in the early 1960s to teach history there, before making it his electoral stronghold. In Normandy, Louis Mexandeau occupied almost all the possible mandates, from the general council of Calvados to the regional council, passing by the municipal council of Caen, where he remained confined to a role of opponent.
Five attempts at the municipal elections
His five consecutive attempts at the municipal elections, however, remained in vain: never, from 1977 to 2001, Louis Mexandeau managed to conquer the town hall of Caen, a solid bastion of the right. “This morning, the city of Caen lost one of its emblematic figures”, posted on the X network Joël Bruneau, mayor Les Républicains de Caen.
Monday, after the announcement of his death, François Hollande, who had promoted him to an officer of the Legion of Honor in 2013, paid him an “affectionate and grateful” tribute, in a message posted on X.