Former French minister Nicole Catala died at the age of 86

Sylvie Claire / October 20, 2022

The former Chirac minister Nicole Catala, former deputy of Paris and vice-president of the National Assembly, died Wednesday at the age of 86, her family said.

Nicole Catala was a member of the RPR and of the Economic and Social Council from 1979 to 1984. In 1986, she was appointed by Jacques Chirac as Secretary of State to the Minister of National Education, in charge of professional training.

In the 1988 legislative elections, she was elected deputy for the 11th district of Paris, then re-elected in 1993 and 1997. This close friend of Philippe Séguin, an advocate of parity between men and women in politics, was also vice-president of the National Assembly from 1993 to 1997 and from 1998 to 2002.

In the 2002 legislative elections, the UMP preferred to give its nomination to the Secretary of State Dominique Versini. Nicole Catala presented a dissident candidacy but was eliminated in the first round.

Born on February 2, 1936 in Millau (Aveyron), Nicole Catala was a law professor. She taught law, economics and social sciences at the University of Paris II.

"We lose, tonight, a woman of heart and ideas who has allowed so many others to make a place for themselves," said on Twitter the Renaissance president of the National Assembly Yaël Braun-Pivet.

"Coming from the social Gaullism, she was a woman of commitment without counting", also greeted on Twitter the former LR presidential candidate Valérie Pécresse, while the LR mayor of the seventh arrondissement of Paris Rachida Dati greeted a minister who "worked actively in favor of vocational training.

A talented academic, she was one of those who had to fight to make a place for herself in the political world," said the MoDem deputy Maud Gatel.