Danielle Mitterand, the widow of former French President François Mitterand, died early yesterday, political sources said. She was 87.

Ms Mitterrand was hospitalised on Friday and later placed in an artificial coma.

“She died at 2 o’clock this morning at the Georges-Pompidou hospital (in Paris),” a source said.

Ms Mitterrand is a decorated member of the French Resistance and combative advocate for the poor who broke the mold as first lady alongside France’s first Socialist President. Ms Mitterrand died before dawn after being hospitalised at Georges Pompidou hospital in Paris in recent days for fatigue, her foundation France Libertes said.

She turned the 14-year tenure of her husband as French President into her own bully pulpit ­– one that long outlasted him. He died of cancer shortly after leaving office in 1995.

A determined activist, Mitterrand advocated many left-leaning causes, supporting Marxist rebels in El Salvador, ethnic minorities like Kurds and Tibetans, and vociferously opposing capitalist excess.

Ms Mitterrand created several charities and criss-crossed the world in defense of human rights. She reportedly once kissed Cuba’s Fidel Castro on the steps of the presidential Elysee Palace.

Her foundation said Ms Mitterrand found guidance in a phrase of French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre: “It’s not right to want to heal the suffering of people without committing to fight the very causes of this suffering.”

France Libertes, whose focus has been human rights and had recently made a top priority of getting drinking water to those without it around the world, said Ms Mitterrand left behind “a message of hope”.