Former senator (UDF then UMP) Jean-François Humbert, who was president from 1998 to 2004 of the former Franche-Comté region, where he rejected vote donations from the National Front, died on Thursday, November 20, at the age of 73, Agence France-Presse learned from the current president of Burgundy-Franche-Comté.
Mr. Humbert has “It made a deep impression on the minds of the people in 1998 with the refusal to govern with the support of extreme right groups, after regional elections that did not give the people an absolute majority”recalls Jérôme Durain (PS).
“As soon as he was elected with the National Front vote” (FN who is now RN), he immediately resigned from the presidency, that is reflected “his strong republican beliefs”the community’s current president said in his tribute. A few weeks later, Mr. Humbert was eventually re-elected as president, but this time without votes from the FN, due to abstention from the left wing.
“He will remain one of the first political leaders to clearly affirm the Republican Party line of rejecting any agreements with extreme groups”underscored Doubs department president Christine Bouquin (LR). Mr Humbert also served in the Senate (1998-2014), where in 2013 he chaired a commission investigating the effectiveness of the fight against doping in sport.
