ONE week after his death, it was revealed yesterday that former President Francois Mitterrand had suffered for the whole of his 14 year term of office from the cancer which eventually killed him. For his last six months in the Elysee he was "no longer capable of governing," according to a book by his former personal doctor.
The revelations by Dr Claude Gubler, in his book The Great Secret, to be published today, caused a political and ethical storm yesterday. Politicians, including the Prime Minister, Mr Alain Juppe, who was Foreign Affairs Minister during Mr Mitterrand's final two years in office denied that he had been unfit to rule.
The medical establishment denounced Dr Gubler for breaking the medical confidentiality rule.
At the same time, the magazine Paris Match drew heavy criticism from the Mitterrand family for publishing two photographs of the former president on his deathbed. Legal action was threatened against the magazine in a statement signed by Mr Mitterrand's widow, Danielle, their two sons, and also by his long term mistress, Ms Anne Pingeot, and their daughter, Mazarine.
Dr Gubler described how Mr Mitterrand's cancer was kept a "state secret" for 11 years, until the then president divulged it after an operation in 1992. Dr Gubler wrote that in his opinion Mr Mitterrand was no longer fit to govern from November 1994, because he was so unwell that he had to spend most mornings lying down in the Elysee, and was frequently too tired to look at documents.
The newspaper Le Monde went further, quoting unnamed sources as saying that Mr Mitterrand knew about his cancer even before he was elected in May 1981.
After the death of former president Georges Pompidou, who died of cancer in office in 1974 and whose illness had been kept secret until the end Mr Mitterrand promised in 1981 that, if elected, he would be open about his state of health, publishing medical bulletins every six months.
These bulletins were all lies, Dr Gubler wrote, saying that from 1982 every one should have begun "The President's cancer."
He described how Mr Mitterrand underwent cancer tests at the military Val de Grace hospital in Paris in 1981, when he was admitted under an assumed name. The tests revealed that he had prostate cancer which had already spread into his bones.
From then on he underwent radiotherapy and hormone treatment, which involved him being put on a drip every day, even at summits and on state visits.
The president was obsessed that the CIA or the KGB might discover the secret. Dr Gubler recounted how he had to improvise ways of hanging Lip the drip, such as using pictures on the wall.