Former French Prime Minister Édouard Balladur has died at the age of 97.

Born on May 2, 1929, in Izmir, Turkey, to an Armenian family that had settled in France, he grew up in Marseille before attending Sciences Po and the École Nationale d’Administration (ENA), from which he graduated in 1957. He served as Prime Minister from March 1993 to May 1995, becoming the last head of government under François Mitterrand during the second period of cohabitation in the Fifth Republic.

From a career alongside Pompidou to the break in 1995.

His political career began in 1964 in the office of Georges Pompidou, then Prime Minister under President Charles de Gaulle. It was during this time that he formed a close relationship with Jacques Chirac, forging a strategic alliance that would significantly shape his career.

After Georges Pompidou’s election as president in 1969, he served as an advisor for social affairs. He worked for the state until 1974, before moving to the Council of State and the private sector, a path he followed until 1986.

His career took a pivotal turn in 1995 when he entered the presidential election, directly challenging Jacques Chirac. This electoral confrontation between long-time allies marked the end of his aspirations for the Élysée Palace and triggered a lasting shift in the French political landscape.

Involvement in the Karachi affair and the end of a career.

Decades later, his public life was once again embroiled in the Karachi affair, concerning alleged funding of his 1995 presidential campaign through illicit commissions derived from arms contracts with Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. He was prosecuted before the Constitutional Court following the 2002 Karachi bombing (which claimed the lives of fifteen people, including eleven French engineers). He was acquitted in 2021, while his former Minister of Defense, François Léotard, was convicted.

Édouard Balladur, who withdrew from political life in 2006 after more than half a century of service at the highest levels of the state, was married since 1957 to Marie-Josèphe Delacour, with whom he had four sons.

Reactions and tributes from the political class.

The passing of the former Prime Minister has prompted numerous reactions from various institutions. Prime Minister Sébastienlekornu praised him on the social media platform X as a “major figure in our public life.” For his part, François Bayrou, president of the MoDem party, emphasized his “sense of state,” praising a government leader who “brought together different temperaments” committed to moderation.