Death of Claude Allègre, former Minister of National Education under Jospin

Former Minister of National Education Claude Allègre died Saturday in Paris at the age of 87. He had since suffered from health problems and his condition deteriorated last September. He suffered a major heart attack in 2013.

This trained geochemist, rewarded with several prestigious prizes for his work, occupied rue de Grenelle from 1997 to 2000, where he experienced a tumultuous tenure, notably because of a projection in which he promised to “degrease the mammoth” of National Education.

Climate skeptic

A sentence “never uttered publicly”, resulting from an “off with a journalist”, “but that’s what remained”, regrets his son Laurent. Claude Allègre was then replaced at the ministry by Jack Lang, which caused a temporary cooling of his relations with his friend and Prime Minister Lionel Jospin, whom he had known during his studies.