Lucette Michaux-Chevry

Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox person Lucette Michaux-Chevry (5 March 1929 – 9 September 2021)<ref name=":0">Lucette Michaux-Chevry, ancienne ministre de Jacques Chirac, est décédée Template:In lang</ref> was a French politician, who served as President of the Regional Council of the overseas department of Guadeloupe<ref name=":1">Template:Cite news</ref> between 1992 and 2004.<ref>Official page on the French senate website</ref> She was nicknamed the "Iron Lady of the Caribbean." because she was "for a long time the strong woman of the department."<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":2">Template:Cite web</ref>

Life and work

Michaux-Chevry was born in 1929 in Saint-Claude, Guadeloupe,<ref name=":3" /> as the fourth of ten children, and completed her law studies at the Sorbonne University in Paris.<ref name=":3">Template:Cite news</ref>

She was the first Guadeloupean woman to enter government service when she won her first election in 1959 becoming a municipal councilor for her town of Saint-Claude. She won just eight days after the birth of her son.<ref name=":0" />

Political achievements

An ardent member of the Socialist Party, Michaux-Chevry supported French presidential candidate Valéry Giscard d'Estaing in 1981.<ref name=":3" /> She was elected to the post of Regional President in 1992 for the first time, then reelected in January 1993, and in 1995. She was elected Mayor of Basse-Terre, Guadeloupe. She was elected to the French senate 1995, and also in 1995, French president Jacques Chirac named her an advisor.<ref name=":3" />

According to her obituary in Le Monde,

She did not abandon her native Guadeloupe, where she multiplied the mandates almost until the end of her life: she was in total three times mayor (Gourbeyre, then Basse-Terre), twice senator (from 1995 to 2011), twice deputy (from 1986 to 1993) and twice president of the region (from 1992 to 2004). In January 2019, she resigned from the presidency of the agglomeration community Grand Sud Caraïbe and announced, at nearly 90 years old, to put an end to her political career, causing an earthquake locally.<ref name=":3" />

However, Michaux-Chevry did not leave politics totally. After she resigned her presidency post in 2019, she retained another position as deputy to the mayor of Basse-Terre. At the time, the mayor was her daughter Marie-Luce Penchard,<ref name=":2" />

Personal life

Lucette was married at a young age to printer Henri Michaux but became a widow when her two children were still young.<ref name=":2" />

Her daughter, Marie-Luce Penchard, became a minister under the Nicolas Sarkozy presidency, and like her mother, she has pursued a career in local and national politics.<ref name=":3" />

Death and tributes

Michaux-Chevry died on 9 September 2021at her home in Gourbeyre, Guadeloupe from throat cancer, at the age of 92.<ref name=":0" />