" To all.
This Thursday, March 4 in the morning, Chantal Guinchard does not immediately spot this title in her flood of e-mails.
Outside, the church tower echoes eight times.
The sun emerges on the two ski jumps that overlook the village.
Chaux-Neuve (Doubs) shivers.
Its 300 inhabitants too.
Here it freezes 167 days a year.
It is said to be the coldest corner of France.
The computer screen projects the messages one by one.
The sexagenarian freezes.
“By the time you read this message, I will be dead.
The text speaks of assisted suicide.
From Switzerland.
A few lines to say goodbye.
And a signature, "Zaza".
In the past, the little girl was lisping.
The nickname stuck.
At 71, she uses it one last time.
Paulette Guinchard announces her own death to her sister-in-law and her seven siblings.
The same disease took away his father and grandmother
The news quickly crossed the highlands of Jura.
The newspapers recall the rise of this child of the country, daughter of peasants, figure of the town hall of Besançon called in 2001 to the government of Lionel Jospin.
"The only minister who knows how to milk a cow," she laughed, the "r's" rolling in the Franche-Comté manner.
The pundits of the Socialist Party (PS) are moved.
The former Prime Minister, 82, leaves his reserve.
He pays homage to the one he had spotted after his report “Aging in France” in 1999. “Paulette had something luminous, a soft and strong light, and my friendship for her was tinged with esteem,” depicts- he at “Parisien-Today in France”.
Paulette Guinchard, here in 1999, was Secretary of State for the Elderly under the government of Prime Minister Lionel Jospin.
/ AFP / Jack Guez
Paulette Guinchard had called him in January.
At the end of the line, his words stammered.
A degenerative disease had plagued the retiree for years.
The same lesion of the cerebellum had paralyzed his father and grandmother.
In 1997, the new deputy, elected in a right-wing stronghold, had looked for a trace of paternal pride on an inert face.
Maurice Guinchard had not spoken for years.
On the phone, the former Secretary of State for the Elderly had told his mentor of his desire to end it.
How would react his son, Georges, from a first marriage, and his two granddaughters of 8 and 12 years old?
At the end of 2002, Lionel Jospin's mother had also scheduled his death.
"She wanted to know if I understood the choice for which she was preparing," confides the former head of government.
I assured him it was.
"
A left Catholic, full of energy
This great figure of the PS is not an early pro-euthanasia activist.
Paulette Guinchard either.
The ex-psychiatric nurse was fighting for a happy old age.
Martine Aubry still praises her law on personalized autonomy allowance (APA).
"She could have been a social worker, as she did everything to help people," smiles the mayor of Lille (North).
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The cruelty of her fate finally caught up with this left-wing Catholic.
Weakened by two successive cancers, Paulette Guinchard resigned from the National Assembly in 2007. The side effects of chemotherapy revive the specter of the family curse.
A DNA test confirms.
The condemned woman is not 60 years old.
Over time, half of his siblings are found to carry the gene.
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During her visits to Chaux-Neuve, her friend Marie-Guite Dufay, president of the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region, sees the body of this “concentrate of energy” slowly dying out.
Her legs no longer carry with difficulty the hiker enthusiast.
In the early years, Paulette Guinchard folded the three wheels of her red electric chair on the train to Paris.
No matter what, she voluntarily chairs the National Solidarity Fund for Autonomy until 2017.
Paulette Guinchard, with her husband (in the middle) and Marie-Guite Dufay, president of the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté Region, during a hike with friends in June 2020. DR
His machine is traveling.
In his large 18th century building, the cows of painter Marcel Mille graze near exotic fabrics and masks, souvenirs of his cruises on the Danube or the Mekong.
"Zaza" would like to continue the embroidery but his fingers stiffen.
So she paints.
In his small workshop, the gouache has now dried.
His brushes stick to the desk.
She spent an hour there every morning.
Passionate about painting, poetry and debates
The rustic floor creaks under the feet of her husband, Denis.
Seventy-three years can be read on this face suffered by the loss of a first wife, of a long illness, already, and the suicide of a son.
However, despite the depression, we can guess the strength under the technical clothing of mountain people.
With the flat of his hand, the former factory manager dusted off a collection of haikus, short Japanese-inspired poems, which Paulette had edited for a printer.
She typed them on her tablet, before going on podcasts and radio.
"When we came to see her, she discussed all the subjects that shake society, with a smile until then", mime Marie-Guite Dufay.
This elected representative and friend hesitates to stand for re-election in the next regional elections?
Paulette recommends to her the memoirs of Barack Obama, which she has just swallowed up in an audio book.
"He speaks so well about life after politics ...", she slips.
His fatigue finally showed through.
Alain Fousseret, co-founder of the Greens and good friend, remembers that in Chaux-Neuve, Paulette only appeared "in episodes".
"She had to take naps," he breathes.
In the evening, we didn't hang around too much.
"
To articulate, above all, becomes more and more painful.
The president of the national council of the PS, Luc Broussy, notices with each call that her husband "answers more and more for her".
The physiotherapy sessions have taught him to slow down his flow.
Alas, in the large tables that she loves so much, Paulette Guinchard struggles to speak.
She liked to debate, to argue and to silence the Chamber by authority.
Soon she will be silenced.
Her friends are unanimous: “This prospect has destroyed her.
"
She refuses to lose her speech
For Denis, the loss of his oral faculties played "80%" in the progress of his wife.
Through the window, the grizzled man gazes out over the windward plain, ravaged this year by voles.
She wanted him to speak, he accepts, with difficulty ... Just a whisper.
"How do you want to react?
You understand.
If you love this person, you understand them.
"
The closest friends are informed smoothly.
Marie-Guite Dufay still remembers it.
“Two years ago, at the table, his little voice hissed.
I can't take it anymore… I have to find a way to disappear
.
We were flabbergasted but we acted as if we hadn't heard anything ... ”.
A year later, Paulette persists, one-on-one.
His decision is made.
“You know, I'm going to contact an organization in Switzerland.
This is not a life.
After everything I've done, look at what I've become.
"
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In the meantime, the former parliamentarian understood that France would not help her die.
Palliative care at the Besançon hospital, where she began her career, turned her away.
The Leonetti law limits the end-of-life protocol to terminally ill patients.
The septuagenarian plugs in her tablet the next day and thinks of the neighboring country, beyond the pines on the hill.
Switzerland offers assisted suicide and not euthanasia, which is practiced in Belgium.
Denis insists: “She had to control her gesture, that she initiates the process herself, and not that someone does it for her.
"
Last night in Switzerland
The couple choose Ex International, an association based in Bern.
The medical file, posted in early November, is considered a priority.
Paulette says she is "relieved".
But the Swiss distill information, keep deadlines, surround themselves with precautions.
The former deputy is pawing.
She was hoping for an answer before the holidays.
At the end of January, the phone rings.
The appointment is recorded.
That day, she barely didn't sing.
Several dates are available.
March 4, 5 or the following week.
Go for the 4. At her side, her husband cash.
“At the same time, it's reassuring.
You know she doesn't hesitate.
A handful of intimate friends are in the know.
Others guess.
Hélène Mignon, with whom she shared the vice-presidency of the National Assembly, sense "two weeks before her death" that this is their final conversation.
Others understand that they will never say goodbye to him.
“The last few days, she no longer answered the phone.
And when the phone does not answer any more… ”, sighs Marylise Lebranchu, ex-minister of François Hollande and longtime comrade.
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Comes the day to cross the border.
The couple do not know the precise place of the meeting, their only address is a post office box.
"Bern is very small", evades the association.
Georges, Paulette's son, joined them from Grenoble (Isère).
At 44, he politely preferred to keep these last moments to himself.
His mother did not wish to see a place again for the last time.
On the road, all three try to escape the emotion of grand declarations.
Her husband and son hold her hand
The next day, the couple get up early.
Difficult night.
Denis remembers every gesture in this impersonal and chic room from the Novotel chain.
The toilet.
Clothes.
Breakfast.
These appearances of normal life.
The waitress who photographs them does not know the significance of this shot.
Before leaving, Paulette writes her farewell email.
The rest takes place in a banal local association.
A nurse, a doctor and a volunteer open the door to this modest apartment for them.
Bedroom, small living room, office.
“Whenever you want, we'll put you on the bed,” one of them offers Paulette.
His response bursts out: “Right away.
"
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The infusion is barely installed on her arm when she starts the administration.
Beside her, Georges and her husband hold her hand.
A solute first passes through the pipe.
Water, to check that everything is working.
Staff wait to introduce the product, a high-dose lethal sleeping pill.
Paulette is ready.
" You can go.
Denis's voice darkened.
“She fell asleep more and more deeply.
And then we watched him die.
"
“All her life, Paulette has tried to transform society.
If his death can contribute to it, that's good, ”says Marie-Guite Dufay.
Her friend, she said, asked her to testify "to say that France is not up to the task".
Some socialist tenors want to seize it to change things.
The deceased, she wanted her ashes to be scattered in a river in Africa.
Write his destiny, until the end.