The former minister Bernard Pons died at the age of 95, his family announced on Wednesday to AFP. He had been secretary general of the RPR, ex-UMP. Originally from Béziers, in the Hérault, he had been Secretary of State and Minister several times, in particular for Dom-Tom then Transport, but also several times elected deputy.
“Doctor Pons”
General practitioner in the Lot, Bernard Pons became a deputy in 1967, the start of a long political career. Described as pugnacious and enthusiastic, the “doctor Pons” was then deputy for Essonne and then for Paris, from 1981 to 2002. Jacques Chirac had him elected to the Council of Paris in 1983 in the 17th arrondissement. He was Secretary of State to the Minister of Agriculture in the Chaban-Delmas and Messmer governments from 1969 to 1973, but did not participate in the governments of the seven-year term of Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, whom he harshly criticized.
He became secretary general of the Rassemblement pour la République, a party created by Jacques Chirac, from 1979 to 1984, then, in 1988, president of the RPR group in the Assembly. He is Minister of French Overseas Territories in 1986, a mandate marked by the massacre of the Ouvéa cave in New Caledonia, which killed 21 people between the two presidential rounds of 1988, 19 Kanaks and two soldiers. He was also transport minister from 1995 to 1997, in the government of Alain Juppé.
Father of four daughters, he has long shared his life between the metropolis and Martinique, and had severed his ties with Jacques Chirac at the end of his political career. “I believed for a long time that he was open, attentive, generous, faithful in friendship. I see today that it is otherwise”he said in 2005 to the Parisian.
“The end of an era”, “great Chiraquian at heart”
“The disappearance of Bernard Pons marks the end of an era. That of great moments of companionship, epic politics, triumphant Gaullism”reacted on Twitter the former President of the Republic Nicolas Sarkozy. “I loved this man who gave so much to his political family,” he added, while addressing his “friendliest and fondest thoughts for his loved ones”.
The LR president of the Hauts-de-France region Xavier Bertrand hailed the memory of a man “faithful to a requirement of politics and to a certain idea of France”, while presidential candidate LR Valérie Pécresse paid tribute to “a historical Gaullist” and “rooted local elected official”.
“A mythical figure of the RPR. A huge Gaullist who worked with these values pegged to the body”, for his part, said the ex-LR mayor of Nice Christian Estrosi. For the president (ex-LR) of the Paca region Renaud Muselier it was “a great chiraquian of heart and commitment”.
Overseas Minister Sébastien Lecornu shared his “sadness”and paid tribute to his predecessor whose action “encouraged investment” in the Overseas “to accelerate their development”.