Nicolas Florian, former mayor of Bordeaux and leader of the right-wing opposition, is dead

Elected LR Nicolas Florian, mayor of Bordeaux from 2019 to 2020 and presented at the time as Alain Juppé’s heir apparent, died on Sunday at the age of 55 in a city hospital, his family announced on Sunday.

“He had a pretty massive stroke on Friday on his way to the office” and was hospitalized at the CHU Pellegrin, a source close to the former mayor told AFP, specifying that the death had occurred “late morning” Sunday.

A figure in local politics, Nicolas Florian was propelled into the mayor’s chair after the surprise departure to the Constitutional Council of his mentor Alain Juppé, mayor of Bordeaux for 22 years, who designated him as his heir.

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Elected in March 2019 by the municipal council, he sought the votes of the Bordelais in the municipal elections in 2020 but he was beaten by the ecologist Pierre Hurmic, despite an alliance in the second round with the Macronist camp led by Thomas Cazenave.

Nicolas Florian has since been one of the main figures in the municipal opposition and called, with a view to the 2026 municipal elections, to renew this alliance between Les Républicains and Renaissance from the first round.

Deputy of Alain Juppé, close to Valérie Pécresse

Lot-et-Garonnais by birth but Bordeaux since childhood, graduated in business law, he cut his teeth in politics by holding local positions, first as parliamentary assistant to an RPR deputy, then at 25 years as an elected official in Villenave-d’Ornon in the Bordeaux suburbs.

After mandates in the mainland, in the department, in the region, he became Alain Juppé’s deputy for Finance, Human Resources and General Administration.

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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 great figures, from Jacques Chaban-Delmas (mayor from 1947 to 1995) to Alain Juppé (1995-2004 then 2006-2019).

This close friend of Valérie Pécresse, judged Macron-compatible, claimed the status of“proximity man” and of “everyday mayor”. He welcomed Guillaume Chaban-Delmas, grandson of the former Prime Minister Georges Pompidou, to his list in 2020.