Mitterrand doctrine

The Mitterrand doctrine (French: Doctrine Mitterrand) is a policy established in 1985 by French President François Mitterrand, of the Socialist Party, concerning Italian far-left terrorists who fled to France: those convicted for violent acts in Italy, excluding "active, actual, bloody terrorism" during the "Years of Lead", would not be extradited to Italy.

The Mitterrand Doctrine was softened in 2002, under the government of Jean-Pierre Raffarin during the presidency of Jacques Chirac, when Paolo Persichetti [it] was extradited from France. However, it continued to remain in effect, with the extradition of 10 far-left terrorists from France to Italy blocked by the French Court of Cassation in 2023.

Mitterrand defined his doctrine during a speech at the Palais des sports in Rennes on February 1, 1985. Mitterrand excluded active terrorists from the protection. On 21 April 1985, at the 65th Congress of the Human Rights League (LDH), he declared that Italian criminals who had broken with their violent past and had fled to France would be protected from extradition to Italy:

"Italian refugees (...) who took part in terrorist action before 1981 (...) have broken links with the infernal machine in which they participated, have begun a second phase of their lives, have integrated into French society (...) I told the Italian government that they were safe from any sanction by the means of extradition".

The policy statement was followed by French justice when it came to the extradition of far-left Italian terrorists or activists. According to a 2007 article by the Corriere della Sera, Mitterrand was convinced by Abbé Pierre to protect those persons. According to Cesare Battisti's lawyers, Mitterrand had given his word in consultation with the Italian prime minister, the fellow socialist Bettino Craxi.

The commitment long took the place of general policy of extradition of activists and Italian terrorists until it ceased to be in force after the extradition of Paolo Persichetti in 2002, a former member of the Red Brigades, which was approved by the Raffarin government. The Cesare Battisti case, in particular, has provoked debate about the interpretation of the doctrine.

Opponents of the doctrine point out that what a president can say during his tenure is not a source of law and so the doctrine has no legal value. Proponents point out that it was nevertheless consistently applied until 2002 and consider that the former president had committed the country by his words.

Its supporters (intellectuals like Fred Vargas or Bernard-Henri Lévy, organizations such as the Greens, the Human Rights League, France Libertés [fr], Attac-France [fr] etc.), along with some personalities of the Socialist Party (PS), are opposed to noncompliance by the right in power with the Mitterrand doctrine.