Like several Western heads of state, Emmanuel Macron reacted overnight to the announcement of the death of Mikhail Gorbachev, the last leader of the USSR who died this Tuesday at the age of 91.
“My condolences on the disappearance of Mikhail Gorbachev, a man of peace whose elections opened a path to freedom for Russians,” the President of the Republic wrote on Twitter. “His commitment to peace in Europe has changed our common history,” he said.
“One of the giants of the last century”
In France, several other political leaders have saluted the memory of the man who became the Nobel Peace Prize winner in 1990. Former presidential candidate Valérie Pécressedescribes him as “a leading figure in European history”.
“He will continue to be the man of perestroika and the peaceful end of the USSR and the communist bloc. What a wind of hope he had raised…”, he writes.
On the left, the first secretary of the Socialist Party, Olivier Faure, believes that Mikhail Gorbachev “is one of the giants of the last century. One of those who, with their decisions, have changed the course of world history.”
“Gorbachev had climbed all the rungs of Soviet power,” recalls the socialist. Yet it is this pure product of the communist system that has become the unwitting gravedigger of the USSR. “It took courage to break free from it and try to unlock a totalitarian system,” Olivier Faure says.
Source: BFM TV
