Message from Danielle Mitterrand
Life has let me walk a long road through time. Destiny has given me the opportunity to set foot on many red carpets and to meet those in high places. But above all, destiny has allowed me to be close to people all around the world, to listen to testimonies from men and women excluded from the happiness of living and overwhelmed with extreme poverty.
The red carpets I walked on during presidential trips did not lead me astray nor did I let the bright lights dazzle me. I saw dictatorships collapse, others being set up with the protection and sometimes the support of the most powerful people on this planet. I saw communism collapse like a house of cards, overturned by people who could no longer bear their leaders’ contempt.
Today, I can see a capitalism splitting up and destroying itself, victim of its totalitarian excesses along with its contempt towards humane and non-monetary values.
25 years after the establishment of France Libertés, the reasons why the foundation was created still are valid… I had the opportunity to see some situations start to change and we even won some of our struggles. But the majority of humanity is still left on the wayside and is violently stricken by the excesses of our system. Climate change is an example of that: once again both the neediest and the most vulnerable people will be the first to pay for our so-called development.
That’s why I think that each one of the foundation’s commitments remains so necessary and essential. Several of those consist in promoting the universal access to water, defining the “real wealth” created, making the rights of peoples recognized and respected.
France Libertés is an active link in a global network, which aims at implementing an alternative to the globalization of trade and finance for a society which gives life every chance.
Danielle Mitterrand, 2011
A life of commitment
Danielle Mitterrand was born in 1924 in Verdun. At the age of 17 years old, during the course of the Second World War, she became a liaison officer in the resistance. She joined the Bourgogne maquis in March 1944. When France was liberated she was awarded the Resistance medal.
In 1986, Danielle Mitterrand created France Libertés, a foundation recognised to be of public utility. Since its creation, France Libertés has stood up for human rights and supported the resistance of oppressed
