Former RPR secretary general and minister, Bernard Pons, who was under Georges Pompidou, François Mitterrand, and Jacques Chirac died at his house in Aigues-Mortes.
Pons was loyal to Jacques Chirac, who appointed him minister of foreign departments and territories in 1986, his name had remained linked to the May 5, 1988 attack on the Ouvéa cave in New Caledonia. His family revealed on Wednesday, 27th April 2022, that he died at the age of 95.
“Dr. Pons” is a character who dominated French political life from the late 1960s to the early 2000s, with an emaciated face, a lagoon blue aspect, and an everlasting smile at the corner of his mouth.
Born on July 18, 1926 in Béziers (Hérault), he was a second-year student at the Lycée de Cahors when, at the age of 17, he joined the FTP maquis (Francs-tireurs et partisans de la main-d’oeuvre immigrée) of the Causse de Lauzès, in the Lot, in March 1944. After being demobilized, he resumed his studies and worked as a general practitioner in Cahors, where he became deputy mayor in 1965.
In 1966, the Prime Minister, Georges Pompidou, who lived nearby in Cajarc and whom he had known, persuaded him to run in the parliamentary elections.
