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The people of Lyon are orphans and I share their sorrow." President Emmanuel Macron on Saturday night paid tribute to his former interior minister Gérard Collomb, who died of stomach cancer at the age of 76. In a statement, the president and his wife paid tribute to the memory of this "dear friend," "a mayor who devoted his exceptional talents of dialogue and imagination to building a city in his image," a "statesman who embodied republican ascension and authority."
The former mayor of Lyon, who died on Saturday at the age of 76, was a "supporter from the very beginning" and an "architect of the victory" won in 2017 by Emmanuel Macron, the Elysée recalled. Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne also paid tribute to the former minister, "a tireless servant of the State, a republican, a companion of the President from the very beginning". "Gérard Collomb has served the French people all his life," she said, while Yaëlle Braun-Pivet, president of the National Assembly and a member of the majority, hailed a "Walker from the very beginning".
Reactions are raining down in particular from the Socialist Party, the political family of the former mayor of Lyon and president of Greater Lyon. François Hollande paid tribute to the socialist "militant" who "contributed to the refoundation of the PS with François Mitterrand and then Pierre Mauroy". "Gérard was endowed with inexhaustible tenacity, rare courage and keen intelligence," the former French head of state said. The president of the Occitanie region, Carole Delga, paid tribute to a "lover of Lyon, of which he was a fine builder".
Right-wing hails 'relevance' on immigration
On the right, political figures such as Éric Ciotti, president of Les Républicains, and Marion Maréchal, candidate of the Reconquête! at the European elections, do not fail to recall the diagnosis of the former host of Beauvau when he left his post in 2018. "Tomorrow we will live face to face," he said, referring to people with a migrant background who live in sensitive neighbourhoods. "The beginnings of his terrible prophecy came true on the evening of his death, in Romans-sur-Isère," reacted Marine Le Pen's niece. "We will miss his vision, lucid about the ills of our society," added the LR president of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, Laurent Wauquiez.