The former mayor of Raincy died on Friday April 16. His funeral will take place next Wednesday in the city he ruled from 1995 to 2014.
Éric Raoult, former mayor (UMP) of Raincy from 1994 to 2015 and former minister under Jacques Chirac died on Friday April 16 at Saint-Denis hospital. The announcement was made by the family to AFP at the end of the afternoon. He was 65 years old.
political tributes
“We knew he had had health problems, he had been operated on several times but he had come back or tried to come back lately, so it’s a real shock”reacted Roger Karoutchi to whom Eric Raoult had succeeded at the head of the Young people of the RPR in 1983. “He was a Gaullist militant of guts, fidelity, loyaltyremembers the senator (LR) from Hauts-de-Seine at France 3 Paris Ile-de-France. It is really a loss for the right because it embodies popular Gaullism, this social Gaullism. An elected official who changed a little from the technocratic and enarchic right.
Memories shared by Francis Szpiner who was a candidate alongside him during the legislative elections in 2012. For the mayor of the 16th arrondissement, Eric Raoult was “someone generous, someone who was a warrior, who was in a difficult chosen land, Seine-Saint-Denis for someone who is RPR. He was very attached to his territory, to his city du Raincy. He was a frank, open person who had a sense of friendship.”.
The federation of Les Républicains in Seine-Saint-Denis affirms that the disappearance of Eric Raoult is a “Immense loss”. “His life was that of a man who had a passion for commitment and the Seine-Saint-Denis pegged to the body.”
📰 Release of @philippedallier and @brunobeschizza for the Federation @lesRepublicains from #HisSaintDenis following the death of Eric #Raoultformer Minister and President of the UMP Federation from 2002 to 2014 https://t.co/9OUXimiQb7
– Young Republicans 93 (@jeunesrep93) April 16, 2021
Minister under Jacques Chirac
Born in Paris in 1955, he graduated in 1981 from Sciences Po before obtaining a master’s degree from the French Press Institute. In 1974 he joined the UDR, which became the RPR two years later. After completing his military service, alongside Nicolas Sarkozy, he was elected in 1983 as first deputy to the mayor of Raincy, Raymond Mège. Three years later he was first elected deputy for Seine-Saint-Denis.
He does not hide a convergence of ideas with the National Front. In the early 1990s he even defended a rapprochement between the RPR and the FN, emphasizing their “common values”.
A few years later, in 1995, under Jacques Chirac, he was appointed minister responsible for integration and the fight against exclusion, before becoming minister delegate to the minister for regional planning, towns and cities. ‘Integration, to the City and to Integration until 1997. “The day he was appointed he called me, says Roger Karoutchi, and he told me ‘I can’t believe someone like me is appointed minister. He was happy. He feels that he will serve and serve even more his fellow citizens, the whole country. He had that in him. He wanted to be close to people and serve. “
During this mandate he was elected in 1995 mayor of Raincy. A function he will hold until 2015, as well as that of deputy. Candidate in the legislative elections of 2012. he was beaten by Pascal Popelin (PS) and lost his elected seat in the 12th district of Seine-Saint-Denis. A political defeat, which coincides with hospitalization for a stroke and a lawsuit against his second wife, Corinne, who accuses him of “violence on a spouse”.
