Faithful of Jacques Chirac, who had made him his Minister of Overseas Departments and Territories in 1986, his name had remained associated with the assault on the Ouvéa cave in New Caledonia, May 5, 1988 . He died at the age of 95, announced his family on Wednesday.
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Former minister under several right -wing governments, faithful of Jacques Chirac, Bernard Pons died at the age of 95, announced his family on Wednesday April 27.
An emaciated face, a lagoon blue look and an unwavering smile at the corner of the mouth, the “Doctor Pons” is a figure that marked French political life from the late 1960s to the early 2000s. Missions of confidence of Jacques Chirac, he remains linked to the assault, on May 5, 1988, of the Gossanah cave, on the island of Ouvéa (New Caledonia), while he was Minister of Departments and Territories of ‘overseas. It was also he who gave his name to the Pons law, the first tax exemption law specifically intended for overseas, which remained famous for the diversions it generated, and repealed in 2000.
Born July 18, 1926 in Béziers (Hérault), he was in second at the Lycée de Cahors when, at 17, he joined, in March 1944, with his two older brothers in the FTP maquis (Francs-Tireurs and supporters of the immigrant labor) of the Causse de Lauzès, in the lot. Demobilized after the war, he resumed his studies and settled, in 1952, as a general practitioner in Cahors, where he became deputy mayor in 1965.
In 1966, the Prime Minister, Georges Pompidou, who owned a residence not far from there, in Cajarc, and with whom he became friends, pushed him to present himself in the legislative elections. He is one of these infantrymen of the Gaullist right launched to conquer the radical lands of the Southwest, like Pierre Mazeaud in Limoges or Jacques Chirac in Ussel, who will also win their first mandate as a deputy during the elections Legislative in March 1967. He was elected in the 2
of that time were formed between Bernard Pons and Jacques Chirac, his six -year -old younger, a solid friendship and a foolproof loyalty. Georges Pompidou elected President of the Republic in 1969, he was appointed Secretary of State for Agriculture in the government of Jacques Chaban-Delmas, then confirmed in these functions in 1972 in that of Pierre Messmer, under the supervision of … Jacques Chirac .
When the latter left Matignon, in 1976, and created the RPR, Bernard Pons, re -elected deputy for the Lot, is part of the Chiraquian guard responsible for exercising his “vigilance” on the Giscardian presidency, in other words to torpedo it the slightest opportunity. In 1979 he inherited the general secretariat of the RPR, a position he occupied until 1984. After having scrapped against the “heresies” Barrists, he now puts his scientist talents to denounce the socialist “impostors”, which ‘Do not hesitate to qualify in turn as “incompetent”, “revolutionaries”, “ayatollahs” or “dictators” …
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