The funeral of Gérard Collomb, the former mayor of Lyon and ex-Minister of the Interior in the first Macron government, will take place on Wednesday in the Saint-Jean cathedral, in the heart of the historic district of Vieux-Lyon, his wife announced in a message sent to AFP on Sunday. “His public funeral will be celebrated on Wednesday at 11:00 a.m. at Saint-Jean Cathedral,” said Caroline Collomb, specifying that the details “of the tribute that the people of Lyon will be able to pay by going to pay their respects in front of his coffin” will be communicated later.
Suffering from stomach cancer, Gérard Collomb died Saturday evening at the age of 76 after having benefited at his request from “deep sedation which allowed him to pass away peacefully with his family”, she said. the day before.
Rain of tributes throughout the country and particularly in his city
The death of this Lyon baron, whose support was decisive in Emmanuel Macron’s victory in the 2017 presidential election, sparked a shower of tributes throughout the country and particularly in his city, which he profoundly transformed over twenty years. mandate.
The Head of State thus greeted “a dear friend”, “a mayor who dedicated his exceptional talents of dialogue and imagination to building a city in his image”, a “statesman who embodied the rise and republican authority. The Senate paid tribute to him on Saturday evening by observing a moment of contemplation.
In Lyon, the flags were lowered to half-mast at the town hall where he served for a long time. Environmentalist mayor Grégory Doucet expressed on X his “deep sadness” at the disappearance of his predecessor, a “transformative and humanist mayor” who “will have forever marked the history” of the city.
Born on June 20, 1947 in Chalon-sur-Saône (Saône-et-Loire), to a father who was a metalworker and CGT trade unionist and a mother who was a housekeeper, this socialist activist who had joined the Republic from the start Emmanuel Macron’s march has remained one of the emblematic political figures of the capital of Gaul, of which he was mayor from 2001 to 2017 then from 2018 to 2020 after a brief stint at Place Beauvau.