(FORTUNE Magazine) – Now seen as a mellow moderate, Francois Mitterrand is no longer the bogyman of business. But his handsome reelection victory is hardly good news for French companies. It marks the end of the free-market revolution led by his Conservative opponent, Prime Minister Jacques Chirac -- a program that started getting the stodgy French economy in shape for the unified European market of 1992. . Mitterrand plans to return to the pragmatic policies of 1983-85, when the Socialists abandoned big spending for a program of fiscal austerity and cautious deregulation. To direct economic policy, he has named Michel Rocard to be prime minister and Pierre Beregovoy as finance minister. Rocard, 57, is the leader of the moderate Socialists and won the respect of businessmen by courageously opposing the wave of nationalizations in 1981-82. But the Socialists plan to scuttle -- or at least slow -- the tax reform and privatization that Chirac pursued. Mitterrand vows to impose an onerous wealth tax that could drive an estimated $35 billion in assets out of France. And the state will keep control of the 36 companies still on the Conservatives' hit list for privatization. State-owned companies will, however, continue to be able to sell minority stakes to raise fresh capital. France's new breed of Socialists has apparently learned something about the free market.