“A demanding servant” for France, “a great statesman,” “a reference”: the former French prime minister Edouard Balladur passed away on Monday at the age of 97, his family announced.
Read more Haakon VIII takes the oath in the Norwegian Parliament as the new monarch
Edouard Balladur was the last prime minister of François Mitterrand, from March 1993 to May 1995. He will go down in political history as “the thirty-year friend” of Jacques Chirac, who became his rival during the fierce 1995 presidential campaign that ended his ambitions.
“He carried France in his heart. He was a demanding, measured, and dedicated servant,” commented French President Emmanuel Macron on X.
“He was a statesman, with a reformist spirit, and will remain a reference for many men and women of his political family,” said Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu.
“I lose a man who was for me an example, a mentor, and a friend,” lamented former president Nicolas Sarkozy, who was his young Budget Minister. “I would not have had the political career I had without his trust.”
“Seeking to convince and never to seduce, he was one of those politicians who have a high opinion of voters because they have a noble idea of France,” praised the leader of the party The Republicans (LR, right), Bruno Retailleau.
For his part, the (LR) President of the Senate, Gérard Larcher, paid tribute to “a great statesman” who “embodied a certain idea of state authority, budgetary rigor, and political responsibility.”
Edouard Balladur, who joined the cabinet of Georges Pompidou—then prime minister under Charles de Gaulle—at the age of 35, participated in the events of May 1968—a student revolt followed by a massive general strike—alongside Jacques Chirac in the Grenelle agreements, signed between the unions and the government.
He followed his mentor, who had become president of the Republic, to the Élysée as deputy secretary general and later as secretary general of the presidency. Later, Jacques Chirac, already president of the right-wing RPR party, sought him to bring him back into politics in the 1980s and appointed him his influential Minister of Economy.
Read more “Keffe D” found guilty of the murder of Tupac Shakur nearly 30 years after the crime
In 1988, François Mitterrand was re-elected for his second term as president of the Republic and the right lost the legislative elections.
He took revenge five years later, in the 1993 legislative elections, forcing the socialist president into a new cohabitation.
The leader of the right, Jacques Chirac, had no desire to be prime minister again and then ceded the position to Edouard Balladur.
Balladur is often described as a grand bourgeois full of haughtiness or as an “honest man” with a somewhat old-fashioned style. Nevertheless, he remains a popular prime minister.
With the support of the majority of public opinion and part of the French right (including Nicolas Sarkozy, then young Budget Minister and future president), he ran as a candidate in the presidential elections in January 1995.
Although he was long considered the clear favorite in the first round, he saw his lead diminish over the weeks and, finally, Jacques Chirac advanced to the second round, where he was elected against the socialist Lionel Jospin.
This failure marked the end of his national ambitions and this fratricidal battle between the two friends “for thirty years”—the expression is Chirac’s—would permanently divide the French right.
Retired from political life, Edouard Balladur was later indicted on suspicions of hidden financing of his presidential campaign through illegal commissions on arms contracts with Pakistan. He was acquitted by the Court of Justice of the Republic in 2021, but not his former Defense Minister, François Léotard—already deceased—who was sentenced to two years of suspended prison.
Read more “I’m going to be hanged”: the logic that would push Putin to intensify the war in Ukraine
