(Washington) Former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, the first woman to hold this post in the US government, died Wednesday at the age of 84, her family announced in a press release.
Posted at 2:36 p.m.
Updated at 4:14 p.m.
Head of diplomacy between 1997 and 2001, in the administration of Democratic President Bill Clinton, Madeleine Albright died of cancer, specify her relatives, who salute “a tireless defender of democracy and human rights” .
Just before taking the helm of American diplomacy, she held the post of United States Ambassador to the UN (1993-1997), where she left her mark, notably during the American offensive in Kosovo. At the same time, the Russian ambassador was a certain Sergei Lavrov… who has since become the head of Russian diplomacy.
US Foreign Ministry spokesman Ned Price called his death “shattering”. “She was a pioneer,” he said. “As the first female Secretary of State, she literally paved the way for much of our profession. »
Madeleine Albright was born on May 15, 1937 in Prague into a Jewish family who then took refuge in London to escape Nazism.
Eleven years later, her family, which has meanwhile returned to Czechoslovakia, decides when the Communists take power there to emigrate to the United States, where brilliant studies will allow Madeleine Albright to access the highest steps of power. .
” The American dream ”
“She lived the American dream and helped others achieve it,” said former US President George W. Bush about this multilingual refugee, speaking English, Czech, French and Russian in particular.
In 2001, just after the latter’s arrival at the White House, she created the “Albright Group”, an international strategy consulting firm based in Washington and which retains a significant influence on the international scene.
A month ago to the day, she published an op-ed in the New York Times accusing Russian President Vladimir Putin of making a “historic mistake” in preparing to invade Ukraine.
In April 2012, by awarding him the “Presidential Medal of Freedom”, the highest civilian decoration in the United States, Barack Obama praised his “courage and tenacity which made it possible to bring peace to the Balkans and opened the path to progress in some of the most unstable corners of the world”.