A great French political figure has passed away. This May 22, 2024, Marie-France Garaud took her last breath at the age of 90, at her home in Saint-Pompain as revealed by her son Jean-Yves, AFP. His funeral will take place in “the strictest privacy“, this Saturday, May 25, 2024, from 4 p.m., in the church of this small French town, located in the department of Deux-Sèvres in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, which she continued to cherish during her lifetime.
Having initially distinguished herself as an advisor to Georges Pompidou, at Matignon then at the Élysée (1967-1974), Marie-France Garaud subsequently became closer to Jacques Chirac. At his side, the politician will then become the Prime Minister of the new president Valéry Giscard d’Estaing. Guided by his valuable advice, Jacques Chirac also founded the RPR (Rally for the Republic, editor’s note). The influence of Marie-France Garaud is such that the magazine Newsweek nickname her “the most powerful woman in France”… To the point of annoying some!
A strong influence that disturbs
But his wonderful collaboration with Jacques Chirac will end following the bitter failure of RPR in the European elections in 1979. A situation which would have delighted Bernadette Chirac, the wife of the politician who considered her a rival according to the revelations of Michèle Cotta in her book My Fifthunveiled last year by the editions Books as notified Gala. “I am my husband’s new advisor“, would have blurted out the former First Lady of France during a dinner which the ex-boss of France 2 attended.
According to the teams of FigaroBernadette Chirac would even have given her husband an ultimatum to definitively get rid of the widow of Louis Garaud: “It will be Marie-France Garaud or her”. The tandem separated and the one who became a European deputy from 1999 to 2004 suffered the blow. “I thought it was the marble from which statues are made: it was the earthenware from which bidets are made.“, she will say of Jacques Chirac, not without bitterness…
