Former socialist mayor, Olivier Léonhardt was also one of the founders of SOS Racisme. Several left-wing and majority elected officials paid tribute to him.
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Essonne senator Olivier Léonhardt died on the night of Tuesday February 1 to Wednesday February 2 at the age of 58, following a long illness, AFP learned from parliamentary sources.
PS mayor of Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois (Essonne) from 2001 to 2017, he was elected to the Senate in September 2017. He sat in the European Democratic and Social Rally (RDSE) group with a radical majority. A former member of the Observatory of Secularism, he was “one of the founders of SOS Racisme where he brought incomparable energy, vitality and fighting spirit”recalled on Twitter the former president of the Harlem Désir association, welcoming “a great elected Republican”.
Many tributes were paid to him on Twitter, especially on the left. “My friend Olivier Léonhardt died after 10 years of courageous fight against the disease. (…) The left loses one of its pillars”tweeted Luc Carvounas, campaign spokesperson for PS presidential candidate Anne Hidalgo. Minister Amélie de Montchalin, elected from Essonne, paid tribute to a “humanist, committed, authentic”. Senate President Gérard Larcher (LR) paid tribute to him on Wednesday afternoon in the hemicycle, at the opening of the session.