Funeral of Gerard Collomb: Macron, Hollande… politicians and anonymous figures expected in Lyon this Wednesday

Elected officials, personalities and anonymous figures will pay their last respects this Wednesday to the former mayor of Lyon and former interior minister Gérard Collomb during a funeral in the Cathedral of Saint-Jean, in the historical center of the city in which he has long been embodied. .

The celebration, chaired by the Archbishop of Lyon, Monsignor Olivier de Germay, will take place from 11 a.m. in the presence of Emmanuel Macron and Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne. The head of state, whom the Lyon baron provided decisive support during the 2017 presidential elections, as well as his former prime minister Edouard Philippe and academic Marc Lambron are scheduled to speak at the ceremony.

The ceremony was broadcast on a huge screen.

In accordance with the wishes expressed during his lifetime, most of the places inside the cathedral will be reserved for Lyon. A huge screen will also broadcast the ceremony live in the square in front of the High Hierarch. Suffering from stomach cancer, Gerard Collomb died on Saturday evening at the age of 76.

Emmanuel Macron, who offered him the Place de Beauvaux immediately after his election, was one of the first to welcome a mayor with “exceptional talents for dialogue and imagination” who, he said, was also “a statesman who personifies republican exaltation and power.”

Since then, congratulations have continued to pour in from the Senate to OL Stadium. “A tireless servant of the state, a republican, a comrade from the very beginning of his presidency: Gérard Collomb served the French all his life,” emphasized Elisabeth Born.

“We will miss his vision, conscious of the ills of our society,” added Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes regional president Laurent Vauquier, who was announced at the funeral, as were former President Francois Hollande and many local elected officials.

His coffin is on display in the town hall.

Born on June 20, 1947 in Chalon-sur-Saône (Saone-et-Loire) to a metal worker father and a housewife mother, this socialist activist, who joined En Marche from the very beginning, remained one of the emblematic political figures. figures for the capital of Gaul, of which he was mayor from 2001 to 2017, then from 2018 to 2020.

According to environmentalist mayor Gregory Doucet, Gérard Collomb “left an indelible mark on our city, working for twenty years to develop it.”

Since Monday, a steady stream of visitors have come to pay their respects at the former councilor’s coffin on display in the town hall, where flags were flown to half-mast. Grateful Lyonnais paraded without flowers, as the family had requested, before recording their memories of this “building mayor” and “visionary” in a book of condolences.

Defeat to the Greens in 2020.

Elected to lead Lyon in 2001 with the support of Raymond Barre after two failed attempts that left him on the municipal opposition bench, he left office in 2017 to become interior minister in Edouard Philippe’s government.

Politically weakened by the Benalla affair, which he said was “difficult to live with,” this “faithful among the faithful” noisily resigned in October 2018 to resume his functions in Lyon, which he handed over to two of his lieutenants.

Deprived of the investiture of the republic in March, he was unable to retake the metropolis in 2020, having been defeated by the “greens”. He has disappeared from the local political scene since announcing his cancer on social media on September 16, 2022.