TIRED AND ILL WITH PROSTATE CANcer, Francois Mitterrand sat silently in a Louis XV armchair at the Elysee Palace, watching election returns. Was it only a dozen years ago that a vigorous Mitterrand, newly elected as France's Socialist President, marched solemnly up the steps of the Pantheon and placed red roses on the tombs of three leftist heroes while the streets of Paris rang with victory celebrations? Now as the results of last week's parliamentary vote flickered across the TV screen, the numbers confirmed what all had suspected: the Socialist era was over in France. Mitterrand's party had been swamped by...
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