Biography

François Gérard Marie Léotard (26 March 1942 – 25 April 2023) was a French politician. Singer and actor Philippe Léotard was his brother. A member of the Republican Party, the liberal-conservative component of the Union for French Democracy (UDF), he appeared in the foreground of the political scene in the 1980s. He led a new generation of right-wing politicians, the "renovationmen", who opposed the old right-wing leaders Jacques Chirac and Valéry Giscard d'Estaing. In 1981, he was selected to be one of the first Young Leaders of the French-American Foundation.