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| 1985, July 11 |
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| The Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior was sunk by French frogmen on orders of the Defense Ministry; the so-called Greenpeace Affair led to the resignation of Defense Minister Charles Hernu and the firing of the head of the External Security Agency, Admiral Pierre Lacoste. | 1 |
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| 1986, Jan. 20 |
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| The Franco-British Channel Tunnel Treaty was signed by President Mitterrand and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Also called the “chunnel,” work on the Channel tunnel was begun at both ends, and the two halves of the service tunnel met on Dec. 1, 1990. The Chunnel, actually three tunnels, was completed in 1994. | 2 |
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| March 20 |
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| Jacques Chirac, a Gaullist, became prime minister, and cohabitation between Socialists and Gaullists began; his government programs, presented in April, included a privatization plan. | 3 |
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| April 14 |
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| Death of Simone de Beauvoir. | 4 |
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| June |
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| A public opinion poll taken after the Chernobyl nuclear reactor accident in the Soviet Union indicated that the French population's approval for the further development of the domestic nuclear power industry was declining. In December 1985, the approval rating for nuclear power was 62 percent; by June 1986 it had dropped to 51 percent. | 5 |
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| Sept |
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| A wave of terrorist attacks in Paris was linked to French policy in the Middle East; in November, Renault chief Georges Besse was assassinated by the group Action Directe. | 6 |
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| Sept. 2 |
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| In a speech to the United Nations General Assembly, Prime Minister Chirac declared that France would not give up its goal of replacing all oil-fired electricity generating stations with nuclear-powered plants. | 7 |
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| Nov. 17–Dec. 10 |
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| Student demonstrations against university reforms proposed by education minister Alain Devaquet led to Devaquet's resignation on Dec. 6. | 8 |
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