Volunteer in the Battalion of Armagnac, wounded in the summer of 1944, this socialist activist, support from Michel Rocard, led the capital of the Gers for eighteen years. He died on January 18, at the age of 99.
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It is an emblematic figure of political life in Gascony and a political and ethical course “exemplary” which has just been extinguished on January 18 in Auch (Gers), at the age of 99, at a few weeks of his hundredth anniversary.
Jean Laborde was first of all a strong resistant, and a doctor devoted to others, but he also incarnated, in his various mandates, this “humanistic socialism” of which he claimed and who has irrigated all the political life Gascon. Beyond his political family, which he won in Paris as a member of Parliament, and in the Gers as President of the General Council, and perhaps above all, as mayor of Auch. A commitment that has also reflected on the contrary … by its opposition to the cumulation of the mandates, still a rarity at the end of the last century, that it confirmed in the field, never beaten in the polls, by successive withdrawals and not Constracted.
At the service of others
The announcement of his death has thus aroused immense emotion and many praise of all political ribs, which he had very largely received from his lifetime, unanimous friends and opponents. “It’s a wise man,” said his successor in 1995, Claude Desbons (PS) and the right opposition figure at the town hall, Restaurateur André Daguin.
Jean Laborde born March 8, 1922 in Bouzon-Gellenave, village of Western Gers, in a very rural department, within a family of farmers. His name is already famous, his first name too … but they are those of a homonym, adventurer Gascon of the XIX e century, who became the lover and the companion of Queen Ranavalona 1 re in Madagascar. This is another adventure, that of voluntary commitment in the resistance, that will choose the young Jean. Engaged in the ranks of the Battalion of Armagnac, he leads several actions in the Gers before being very seriously injured in the fighting of Aire-sur-L’Adour in the summer of 1944. This is one of the Latest major historic resistance attached to the duty of memory that has just disappeared.
Back to civilian life, his vocation will incarnate in a new choice at the service of others: he will be doctor. And socialist activist. However, it was only in 1973 that the PS Gersois broke out for the candidate for the legislative comes to seek “the good doctor Laborde” to face the heavyweight John Eve, Prefect, former director of the National Police. At the end of a Homeric campaign, Jean Laborde premature. He is general adviser in 1976 and, in the wake, President of the Departmental Assembly.
In 1977, he won the town hall of Auch still against Jean Eve, probably his most emblematic political battle, at the head of a union list of the left. In just four years, it has become the strong man of the department. But, facing this “irresistible ascent”, the man who knew the maquis keeps the head cold.
“A humanist”
While nothing obliges it legally, the decentralizing rocardie, notably author of the Auch Call in 1979 for the presidential candidacy of Michel Rocard, leaves in 1982 the presidency of the General Council, in 1982, 1993 Its MP headquarters, in 1995 his mayor chair, with prepared successions and an uncompromising ethical reputation: “If anyone had intervened to propose a pot-de-wine to the mayor, he would have come to kicking in the ass, “said one of his communist deputies.
“His example will have helped to trigger vocations and to forge consciences,” summarizes Christian Laprebennde, current socialist mayor of Auch. “A humanist, someone sincere, who has sought to do the good around him,” returns his great opponent Jacques Brugau (Ex-RPR). The elected, who always led his car himself, indicated that he did not like “the external signs of power”. “I have always wanted to be an ordinary citizen. ELU, I have always continued to live, smile, be available.” A sober practice of power that has never earned him to be qualified as “Duke de Gascogne”. Jean Laborde had remained for many “Mayor”.