Elected LR Nicolas Florian, mayor of Bordeaux from 2019 to 2020 and presented at the time as Alain Juppé's heir apparent, died this Sunday at the age of 55 in a city hospital. His family confirmed to AFP his “sudden death” in hospital this Sunday, expressing their “immense pain”.
“He had a fairly massive stroke on Friday on his way to the office” and was hospitalized, said a source close to the former mayor, adding that the death occurred “late morning” this Sunday.
“The announcement of the sudden disappearance of Nicolas Florian upsets us all,” reacted the Prime Minister, François Bayrou, on his X account. “Mayor following Alain Juppé whose friend he was, he was a of the most respected voices in Bordeaux. »
Defeated by environmentalist Pierre Hurmic in 2020
Nicolas Florian has since been one of the main figures of the opposition at Bordeaux town hall and called, with a view to the 2026 municipal elections, to renew this alliance between Les Républicains and Renaissance from the first round.
His death reshuffles the cards for the next elections, where Thomas Cazenave, former Minister of the Budget, is now the main opponent of Pierre Hurmic.
The elected environmentalist expressed his “sadness” after this “brutal disappearance”, which “leaves an immense void in the municipal council”, saluting, in a press release, “the memory of a determined politician”.
Former Prime Minister Édouard Philippe, also a Juppéist, paid tribute to “an old comrade, an old companion, alongside Alain Juppé”. The mayor of Le Havre spoke this Sunday at a regional meeting of his Horizons party in Bordeaux, where a minute of silence was observed.
-“Everyday Mayor”
Lot-et-Garonnais by birth but Bordeaux since childhood, graduated in business law, Nicolas Florian cut his teeth in politics by performing local functions, first as parliamentary assistant to an RPR deputy, then, at 25, as elected official in Villenave-d'Ornon in the Bordeaux suburbs.
After mandates in mainland France, in the Department and in the Region, he became Alain Juppé's deputy for finance, human resources and general administration.
When he passed the baton in 2019, he had a little over a year to try to impose his mark in the face of what he described as “local snobbery” devoting Bordeaux to big figures, from Jacques Chaban-Delmas (mayor from 1947 to 1995) to Alain Juppé (1995-2004 then 2006-2019).
This close friend of Valérie Pécresse, deemed Macron-compatible, claimed the status of “local man” and “everyday mayor”. Married, father of one child, he welcomed on his list, in 2020, Guillaume Chaban-Delmas, grandson of the former Prime Minister of Georges Pompidou.
“My friend Nicolas Florian left us suddenly and it’s a shock,” reacted Valérie Pécresse, president of the Île-de-France region, on X. “He had his city of Bordeaux in his heart. » The Minister of the Interior (LR) Bruno Retailleau, for his part, expressed his “stupor” at this “brutal death”. “Bordeaux will miss him, as the right will miss him,” he tweeted. Former Prime Minister Michel Barnier paid tribute to the memory of an elected official who “loved Bordeaux as he loved France”.
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