Prime Minister François Bayrou was keen on being in the front row as he attended the funeral of Anne-Marie Comparini in Lyon's light-filled Saint-Jean Cathedral, on Saturday, January 11. The passing, a week earlier, of the former head of the Rhône-Alpes region, at the age of 77, marked the end of a long friendship for the new PM, president of the centrist MoDem party.

Comparini had long been one of the few faces of triumphant centrism. A deputy mayor of Lyon and an MP, she became head of the region in 1999 thanks to the left's backing against a right-wing candidate who had compromised himself a year earlier by accepting votes from the far-right Front National. "Finding myself with this responsibility at the time of her last journey (...) it has meaning," Bayrou, who has been prime minister for a month, confided outside the ceremony.

In the cathedral, he stepped forward, alone, to deliver the eulogy for his "dear Anne-Marie," who "knew how to provide structure to the region, using dialogue, negotiation, and the necessary step towards others as keys to maintaining and balancing action," he stated. "The jibes, the insults sometimes, you paid no attention to," Bayrou went on. He himself says he pays no mind to poor polling. A month after his appointment he displays deep satisfaction. On Friday evening, in Pau, the southwestern city he is mayor of, during his traditional New Year's address, he surprised his audience by thanking the municipal opposition, which he had never done in 10 years of local leadership.

You have 81.67% of this article left to read. The rest is for subscribers only.