Former French prime minister Édouard Balladur dies at 97: tributes pour in from Macron, Sarkozy
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Former French prime minister Édouard Balladur dies at 97 in Paris
ContinuationFormer French prime minister Édouard Balladur dies at 97: tributes pour in from Macron, Sarkozy
Édouard Balladur, the former French prime minister who served from March 1993 to May 1995 under Socialist President François Mitterrand, died in Paris on Monday at the age of 97, his family told AFP .
Balladur led France’s last "cohabitation" government of the Mitterrand era, a period marked by conservative control of parliament under a Socialist president. A private funeral mass will be held "in the closest family circle," his family said, without providing further details .
French President Emmanuel Macron paid tribute to Balladur on X, calling him a "demanding, level-headed, and devoted public servant" who had "dedicated his life to the Fifth Republic" . Current Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu described him as a "statesman with a reformist spirit" who "will remain a role model for many men and women in his political circle" .
Balladur, a conservative, ran for president in 1995 in a bitter campaign against his longtime ally Jacques Chirac, then leader of the Rally for the Republic. Despite early polling leads, Balladur finished third in the first round, clearing the way for Chirac’s eventual victory over Socialist Lionel Jospin. The rivalry left deep divisions within France’s center-right .
Born on May 2, 1929, in Smyrna—now Izmir, Turkey—to a wealthy Catholic Armenian family, Balladur moved to France as a child, settling first in Marseille before studying at the prestigious École Nationale d’Administration in Paris . He began his political career as a close adviser to President Georges Pompidou, serving as his chief of staff until Pompidou’s death in 1974. Balladur also played a role in negotiating the 1968 Grenelle Accords, which ended the May 1968 student and worker uprisings .
After leaving politics, Balladur faced allegations of financing his 1995 presidential campaign with kickbacks from Pakistani arms deals. He was acquitted by France’s Court of Justice of the Republic in 2021 .
Bruno Retailleau, leader of the conservative Les Républicains party, said Balladur "held voters in high regard because he had a noble vision of France" . Former President Nicolas Sarkozy, who once considered Balladur a mentor, called him a "model, friend, and one of the people who mattered most in my life" .
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