It was with a few words on his Twitter account that Gérard Collomb, the former mayor of Lyon, announced that he was “suffering from stomach cancer”. The former Minister of the Interior, 75, explains that he learned of it last Monday. “I will fight against the disease with the same energy that I had put in the service of Lyon, of our Metropolis when I exercised the functions of mayor and president”, he assures then.
As soon as he was announced, Gérard Collomb received many messages of support. “With you, dear Gérard Collomb, in this ordeal and this fight against illness. Everyone knows your strength and your courage in the face of adversity, ”wrote Yael Braun-Pivet to him in particular, the President of the National Assembly.
The LR president of the Ile-de-France region Valérie Pécresse also sent her “warmest thoughts”. “I keep from our exchanges in Beauvau the acute memory of your lucidity and your courage”, added the former presidential candidate. “We know your pugnacity in politics, I wish you the same to win against the disease”, also reacted the councilor delegate to the city of Lyon Gautier Chapuis.
A long-time member of the Socialist Party, Gérard Collomb was one of the first, in 2016, to support Emmanuel Macron for the 2017 presidential election. Mayor of Lyon from 2001 to 2017, he left his chair to become Minister of the Interior in the government of Edouard Philippe before resigning in October 2018. He then found the town hall until 2020 where he was swept away by the green wave at the municipal elections. He has since been a municipal councilor and metropolitan opposition councilor.
This is not the first time that a politician has revealed that he has cancer. In the past, François Rebsamen in particular had also reported on his illness. He has since announced his recovery.