The tribute from the political class is commensurate with the stature of the character and his journey. The death of former Prime Minister Édouard Balladur, who died in Paris on Monday at the age of 97, sparked a storm of reactions as soon as it was announced in the evening. Starting with Emmanuel Macron: in a message on
Same historical height for the current host of Matignon, Sébastien Lecornu, indicating that “from his beginnings with Georges Pompidou, until his accession to Matignon”, Édouard Balladur was “a major figure in our public life.” The current host of Matignon will also remember him as a “statesman, with a reforming spirit”, who “will remain a reference for many men and women in his political family.”
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On the right side, Nicolas Sarkozy confides having “lost a man who was for (him) an example, a mentor and a friend”, Édouard Balladur having put his foot in the stirrup in 1993 by appointing him spokesperson and Minister of the Budget of his government. A political and personal bond so close that it led the young wolf of the RPR to choose him for the 1995 presidential election, at the expense of Jacques Chirac. Inhabited by “a deep sorrow”, the ex-president lets it be known that he “would not have had the political career that was (his) without (the) trust and without (the) friendship” of Édouard Balladur. “He stood by me in good times as well as in trials, and his affection never failed me,” continues Nicolas Sarkozy, for whom this “departure leaves an immense void.”
His distant successor at the head of the Republicans, Bruno Retailleau, portrays Édouard Balladur as “one of those politicians who have a high opinion of voters because they have a noble idea of France”, whose ambition was more to “convince” than to “seduce”. In the ranks of the central block, praise is also increasing. For the Renaissance presidential candidate, Gabriel Attal, Édouard Balladur will have “marked more than half a century of French public life” and leaves the Republic orphaned by a “great servant”.
In the same vein, the boss of MoDem, François Bayrou, retains in Édouard Balladur “the sense of the State”. “His government, from 1993 to 1995, brought together different temperaments who all had a sense of freedom and who believed in reform. He shared with them the idea that we could change things and the ardor for moderation,” recalls the centrist figure, who was his Minister of Education during this period of cohabitation. The President of the National Assembly, Yaël Braun-Pivet, insists, for her part, on the former Prime Minister’s attachment to “a high idea of our institutions and the responsibility of those who serve them.”
On the side of the nationalist right, finally, Jordan Bardella describes Édouard Balladur as “a statesman, aware that our country, to remain master of its choices and its destiny, must control its public finances”. “Even recently, he resolutely and lucidly pleaded for France, on migration issues, to regain its national sovereignty and regain control,” adds the president of the RN. Marine Le Pen is also complimentary, saluting “a statesman who will have left his mark on French public life, who will have consistently carried his convictions and his conception of the service of the Republic and who will always have shown respect for democratic debate”.
A tribute assumed on the part of the four-time candidate for the Élysée, “beyond the political disagreements” which opposed the FN, now RN, to Édouard Balladur in the 1990s. There remains the boss of the UDR, Éric Ciotti, who sees in Édouard Balladur a “vigilante of the Republic” and “one of its greatest prime ministers”. Holding a liberal line, the mayor of Nice (Alpes-Maritimes) also deplores his failure in 1995: “The election of this immense statesman would have changed the destiny of France and initiated reforms essential to the modernization of our nation. France then took the path of a form of immobility,” he laments.
