Former mayor of Lyon Gérard Collomb loved change and his Lyon

“Lyon is dead.” With these words opened the French newspaper Progress Sunday. Behind the white letters is a photo of the always impeccably dressed Gérard Collomb, former mayor of the southern French city. He died Saturday at the age of 76.

Collomb was the best known Lyonnais of his generation. He governed the city for almost twenty years, between 2001 and 2020. Only between May 2017 and October 2018 did he leave Lyon, to serve a year and a half as Minister of the Interior under President Emmanuel Macron.

This career was not a given. Collomb was born in 1947 in the town of Chalon-sur-Saône, just north of Lyon. His father was a furniture maker, his mother a cleaner. Father Collomb would have liked to see his highly motivated son become an engineer, he writes The world, but Collomb chooses classical languages. An atypical choice for the shrewd politician he would become: most of his colleagues were educated at the prestigious large schools.

During his student years, Collomb became a member of the student club Démocratie et université, affiliated with what would later become the Socialist Party. In 1981, at the age of 34, he became a parliamentarian for that party. Fourteen years later he was elected mayor of the ninth arrondissement of Lyon (the city has one umbrella mayor and also mayors per arrondissement).

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Lyon in August,during a heat wave.” class=”dmt-article-suggestion__image” src=”https://images.nrc.nl/TYlR37KpiQfRCjMBtFPIhq5mxdY=/160×96/smart/filters:no_upscale()/s3/static.nrc.nl/bvhw/files/2023/09/data105495931-952a4b.jpg”/>

Switch to Macron’s party

The outspoken Collomb tries, among other things, to attract large companies: according to the socialist mayor, the way to achieve social progress. In the meantime, he has risen within the party to become national secretary. In that position he meets world leaders such as Mikhail Gorbachev and President Lula of Brazil.

In 2001, Collomb was elected mayor of Lyon. He moves mountains, which are still visible in the city. For example, he breathed new life into the Part-Dieu business district, built sidewalks along the Rhône and built a large stadium. Under Collomb, there will also be a bicycle sharing system in Lyon, one of the first French cities. His dedication to the city makes him a beloved citizen.

After the election of fellow party member François Hollande as president in 2012, Collomb got to know Emmanuel Macron. He is immediately impressed by the young Minister of Economy, who dreams of reforming France. When Macron becomes presidential candidate for the 2017 elections with his own centrist party En Marche, Collomb switches. He is the first political heavyweight to do this and thus gives the 39-year-old presidential candidate legitimacy. If Macron is sworn in, Collomb can unable to hold back his tears.

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Out of place in Paris

Macron rewards Collomb by appointing him Minister of the Interior: the most important government position after prime minister. As minister, he tightens the anti-terrorism law and an immigration law, to the dissatisfaction of the left wing of En marche. Collomb was never really in the right place in Paris: the work pace was murderous and he clashed with Macron several times – among other things, he publicly accused the president of a “lack of modesty”. After a political scandal surrounding Macron’s bodyguard Alexandre Benalla, Collomb resigns. It was the second unexpected departure of a minister in a short time, with which Collomb weakened the position of the president he once held so highly in.

In Paris, Collomb presented himself as a man of the province, who had no interest in Parisian “talkers”. In doing so he kept the door to Lyon ajar. After resigning as minister, the stooge who was temporarily in charge in Lyon made way. Collomb was able to return. He remained mayor until 2020, when he surprisingly lost to the green politician Grégory Doucet. Collomb remained on as an advisor.

Last year, the former mayor announced that he had cancer. “I will fight the disease with the same energy I put into Lyon,” he wrote at the time. He lost that battle this Saturday – leaving behind his wife and five children. His successor Doucet has hung the flags at half-mast in Lyon. On X he writes that “Lyon is in mourning.”

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