General Jean-Louis Georgelin, former chief of staff of the armies and responsible for the restoration of Notre-Dame died in the mountains in the Pyrenees, indicates this August 19 the parquet floor of Foix.
3 mins
General Jean-Louis Georgelin died at the age of 74, on the evening of Friday August 18, during a hike in the Pyrenees, the Foix prosecutor’s office told AFP on Saturday. ” The PGHM (high mountain gendarmerie platoon, editor’s note) intervened on the slopes of Mont-Valier (…) and discovered the corpse of a man who was positively identified as General Georgelin “Said a representative of the prosecution, specifying that the accidental track was privileged.
Alert from the Estagnous refuge
The PGHM was alerted by the guardian of the Estagnous refuge (2,246 m above sea level), below Mont-Valier, who informed him that a hiker had not returned, said the prosecution, adding that the general was hiking alone, according to the first elements of the investigation. Alerted around 8 p.m., the platoon went to the scene by helicopter from the aerial section of the Pamiers gendarmerie and found the general dead, according to the gendarmerie. The investigation is entrusted to the Foix research brigade with the findings made by the PGHM, according to the same source.
Five-star general, Jean-Louis Georgelin, born August 30, 1948 in Aspet, Haute-Garonne, former student of Saint-Cyr and chief of staff of Jacques Chirac in 2002, had been promoted to army general in 2003. Chief of Staff of the French Armed Forces (Cema) from 2006 to 2010, he supervised operations in Côte d’Ivoire, Afghanistan, the Balkans and Lebanon.
One of ” great servants ” from France
President Emmanuel Macron had chosen him in 2020 to orchestrate the reconstruction of Notre-Dame Cathedral, to move forward with determination on this extremely complex project. By setting a five-year goal for the restoration, Emmanuel Macron needed a man who could decide in the many arbitrations between very diverse professions and interests. A mission appreciated by Jean-Louis Georgelin, who said he liked it “ deposit » and had for motto « move forward without procrastination “. ” At the end of the year we will see the arrow in the sky of Paris “, welcomed the general, on July 21, during the dress rehearsal for the assembly of the first floor of the spire of the cathedral in Briey (Meurthe-et-Moselle).
” With the death of General Jean-Louis Georgelin, the Nation lost one of its great soldiers. France, one of its great servants. And Notre-Dame, the architect of its rebirth “Wrote the French president in a brief message on the X network (ex-Twitter). “ He knew how to create the human and organizational conditions to carry out the reconstruction of Notre-Dame “, estimated for his part on the same network the mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo. ” France loses a great servant of the state “, added the president of the Île-de-France Region, Valérie Pécresse.
” Loyalty »
” A life in the service of France. Jean-Louis Georgelin carried within him a certain idea of loyalty and commitment. He will not see Notre-Dame rebuilt, his latest project “, also estimated on X the Minister of the Armed Forces, Sébastien Lecornu. The current Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces, General Thierry Burkhard, also expressed his emotion. ” Admiration at the unshakeable strength of character of this extraordinary leader and his total commitment to the service of France continued outside the armed forces “, he posted on the same platform. For her part, Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne hailed “ an exceptional man who devoted his life to serving the Nation “. “ For four years, he had been devoted to his ultimate “combat mission”: the reconstruction of Notre-Dame de Paris. We owe him so much “Finally declared the Minister of Culture Rima Abdul Malak.
(With AFP)
Read alsoNotre-Dame de Paris: the reconstruction of the spire stool successfully carried out