An illustrious politician has died. François Léotard, former Minister of Culture and Defense under François Mitterrand, died at the age of 81, Emmanuel Macron announced on Twitter on Tuesday.
“François Léotard served the State and carried a great idea of culture. With his passing, we lose a free spirit, a man of books and commitment. His native Var, the France he defended, the Republic he loved are experiencing a great loss today, ”commented the President of the Republic on the social network.
“The Southern Region, its region, bows to the memory of François Léotard”, who was also “four times deputy of Var and mayor of Fréjus for 20 years”, for his part affirmed the president of this region, Renaud Muselier , paying homage to “a man of states and territories”.
Tired, he left politics in the 2000s
Precocious and suspicious, sporty and stressed, this politician in whom many saw a potential presidential candidate had left politics in the 2000s. Stricken with “weariness”, François Léotard will then explain that he “no longer supported” the political world, his aspect of “prostitution”, made of “flattery” and “lie”, that he had to find “his own language”.
Electoral failures and legal troubles (conviction in 2004 to ten months in prison suspended for money laundering and illicit financing of a party) had also weakened him.