Gérard Collomb, former Minister of the Interior and ex-mayor of Lyon, died at the age of 76

The former deputy for Rhône announced a little over a year ago that he was suffering from stomach cancer.

He frequented Place Bellecour for a long time, before arriving at Place Beauvau. Former Minister of the Interior Gérard Collomb died on Saturday November 25 at the age of 76, France Télévisions learned from those around him, confirming information from Lyon Mag. The former mayor of Lyon announced in September 2022 that he was suffering from stomach cancer.

In a brief message sent to AFP, his wife, Caroline Collomb, specified that her husband “desired, when it became clear that his illness could not be improved by any anti-cancer treatment, to benefit from deep sedation which allowed him to pass away peacefully among his family”Saturday around 9 p.m.

A “transformative mayor”

Born in 1947 in Chalon-sur-Saône to a housekeeper mother and a metalworker father, this classics scholar, fan of Eddy Mitchell, was elected to the town hall of Lyon in 2001. He had inspired the transformation of the city into a modern metropolis during his three successive mandates. An early supporter of Emmanuel Macron, the socialist left his post in 2017 to join the Ministry of the Interior. After a little less than a year and a half in government, he returned to his position in Lyon. But in 2020, he failed to retain his position in the municipal elections.

His death sparked a flood of reactions and tributes. “He was the worthy successor of Edouard Herriot. The people of Lyon are orphans and I share their grief”, declared the President of the Republic on the social network X (formerly Twitter). The current environmentalist mayor of Lyon, Grégory Doucet, for his part welcomed this “transformative and humanist mayor who will have forever marked the history of Lyon”.