Death of Edgard Morin: from the left as from the right, the political class salutes the memory of an intellectual who “crossed the century by enlightening it”

The disappearance of the philosopher immediately led to numerous reactions in the political world. The longevity of Edgar Morin, the upheavals of the 20th century^e century that he lived through had preserved an aura for him until the last months of his life.

The President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron, welcomed the “Soldier of the Resistance, activist and freedman, writer and thinker of the century, defender of nature and people”. “Edgar Morin was humanism made person. With his kindness, his curiosity, he never ceased to enlighten us.”added the head of state.

An intellectual hailed for his work and his commitment

His predecessor at the Élysée, François Hollande, also paid tribute to Edgar Morin. He “will have crossed the century by illuminating ithe wrote on X. He searched all his life where humanity was going, giving it the keys to understanding its evolution.”. “Marked by the Resistance, he chose, during his long existence, the paths of intellectual freedom”specifies the former socialist president.

On the left, the tributes followed one another. For the national secretary of the PCF, Fabien Roussel, “With Edgar Morin, it is a great figure of thought, commitment and progress who is leaving us. Resistant, communist for a whole period of his life, he had followed other paths than ours but without ever abandoning the ambition to bring about a better world ». « His contributions remain valuable for thinking about our times and opening a new chapter of humanity.”underlines the communist leader.

The first secretary of the PS, Olivier Faure, recalls having “Learned from Edgar Morin that we must be wary of certainties and never give up understanding the world in its complexity by connecting including what a priori is opposed.”. “An immense intellectual leaves us, leaving us as a legacy the necessary “insurrection des consciencesâ€Â Â»he greets. “Thank you for the fights and the humanism, the kindness and the friendship too”reacts for his part Raphaël Glucksmann.

Supportive tributes from Mélenchon and Villepin

Founder of LFI and candidate for the 2027 presidential election, Jean-Luc Mélenchon also bowed to “the memory of Edgar Morin, great intellectual figure ». « He left us yesterday at 104 years oldhe declared during a speech. At 102, he was engaged on the first line of combat against the genocide in Gaza. His theory of complexity had served as a pretext for social democracy to say that nothing is possible. The heart of his thinking was the exact opposite. Understanding complexity in order to act on it.” “An example never dies”concludes Jean-Luc Mélenchon.

Former Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin also joined the tributes to Edgar Morin:“He leaves us the hope of a policy of civilization capable of rebuilding a collapsed world.”

For the former minister of Jacques Chirac, the philosopher and sociologist “understood better than many that the future is built neither in closed certainties nor in brutal simplifications, but in the patient effort to connect what our time too often separates: reason and poetry, science and conscience, the nation and humanity, liberty and fraternity.”.