Overview
- The Socialist Party announced that Huguette Bouchardeau died on Monday 18 May, a fact reported by national outlets and confirmed in a PS statement released on 21 May.
- Bouchardeau rose from student and union activism to lead the Parti socialiste unifié in 1979, becoming the first woman to head a French political organisation.
- She ran for president in 1981, won 1.10% of the vote, backed François Mitterrand in the second round and later entered government as secretary of state in March 1983 and as minister of the Environment in July 1984.
- She sponsored the 12 July 1983 law that opened and democratized public inquiries, a measure widely known as the "loi Bouchardeau," and was a longtime campaigner for abortion rights who founded the CLEF feminist study centre.
- After national office she served as deputy for the Doubs, was mayor of Aigues-Vives, ran a publishing house and published biographies, and public figures including the PS and Bernard Cazeneuve have paid tribute to her legacy.