Prime Minister François Bayrou came by surprise to Pas-de-Calais on Friday to attend the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Liévin mining disaster, a firedamp attack which left 42 dead.
Liévin was the deadliest mining disaster in post-war France and left a lasting mark on the region.
On site, other elected officials were present, notably Xavier Bertrand, president of the Hauts-de-France region, and Marine Tondelier, patron saint of environmentalists and regional advisor.
After a speech, the Prime Minister laid a wreath in front of the monument in tribute to the missing miners.
“Fifty years later, France remembers the Liévin disaster which marked our collective memory,” Emmanuel Macron also underlined on Friday on X.
“I salute the memory of the forty-two missing minors, whose courage remains a lesson for all of us, and the fight of their families for memory and dignity,” added the President of the Republic.
For the 40th anniversary of the disaster in 2014, Manuel Valls, then Prime Minister, also made the trip to this socialist bastion in the middle of a department where the RN is very established, to pay tribute to the “working world”.
