Liliane Marchais, widow of the former secretary general of the Communist Party Georges Marchais, died Thursday of coronavirus in an Ehpad, at the age of 84, announced the PCF deputy of the North Fabien Roussel.
Born in 1935 in Malakoff (Hauts-de-Seine), she joined the Communist Party in 1952 and the CGT in 1953. Member of the executive management of the CGT Federation of Metals between 1960 and 1964, she joined the within the direction of the PCF of Val-de-Marne at the same period. She continued to sit on the PCF federal office of Val-de-Marne until 1996, then on the federal committee.
From the late 1960s, Liliane Garcia was the companion and then the wife of Georges Marchais, emblematic boss of the French Communist Party from 1972 to 1994 and unsuccessful candidate in the 1981 presidential election against François Mitterrand. Mr. Marchais died in November 1997.
"Pack your bags, we're going back to Paris"
She had acquired a sudden and involuntary notoriety in January 1980, when her husband had launched on television: "When I heard François Mitterrand refuse to commit to the existence of an independent national defense, I said to my wife: '' François Mitterrand decided to abandon the common program of the left. Pack the bags, we go back to Paris '' ”.
“Liliane had a strong character that stood out for frankness and sincerity. Like all those who have met her, I will always remember her blue eyes, her ever-present smile and her eternal Gypsy lips, as well as the wisdom and camaraderie she brought in all her meetings ”, a underlined Mr. Roussel, who "sends his sincere condolences and all his friendship to his two children, Olivier and Annie, to his grandchildren and to all the communists of Val-de-Marne and in particular those of Champigny where the family lived" .
In February 2015, Ms. Marchais attacked the town hall of Villejuif, a communist stronghold that the right had removed from the PCF a year earlier, after the municipality's decision to rename the forecourt Georges-Marchais. The judges had ruled in favor of the widow of the Communist leader.