Mitterrand widow dies

FORMER first lady of France Danielle Mitterrand died in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

The widow of President François Mitterrand had been placed in an artificial coma at the Georges-Pompidou hospital in Paris after being admitted on Friday. She was 87.

A former Résistance worker, she met Mitterrand - who went by the codename François Morland - as he was fleeing Paris. She was his liaison and they pretended to be lovers to fool the Gestapo. They married after the war.

Always a humanitarian and political campaigner she refused to play the role of first lady when Mitterrand was elected president in 1981. She continued her campaigns on human rights and founded the Fondation France Libertés in 1986. She was so attached to its work she left hospital last month to be able to attend celebrations for its 25th anniversary.

She stood by her husband when, after he stepped down in 1995 after serving two terms, it was revealed that he had had an illegitimate daughter.

Her campaigning came to the fore in 2005 when she spoke out on the French referendum on the planned European constititution and demanded a No vote in defiance of the rest of the political spectrum - and won solid backing when France rejected the plan.