1981 French presidential election

La Force tranquille, François Mitterrand, 1981 A Socialist candidate who needed to look like a safe pair of hands appears calmly in front of Sermages, a small village in the Nièvre, its church steeple behind him, under the slogan The Quiet Strength. Jacques Séguéla's poster sells continuity and rural France rather than revolution, the reassurance the campaign was after. Even the steeple was cut short, since a prominent religious sign would have gone too far for the candidate. The slogan only arrived late in the campaign, after the official Changer la vie, and Séguéla admitted it did not catch on at first; Mitterrand kept returning to it until it defined him. Pictured is the village church itself, with the full spire the poster trimmed.