A former minister, two senators, a sub-prefect, the president of the department, a deputy and a former deputy, the president of the intercommunality, numerous mayors of neighboring municipalities and members of the CCPOH, and numerous citizens. There were people in the Saint-Georges room in the commune of Les Ageux to pay a final tribute to Éric Warlouzet, mayor who died in the exercise of his duties on December 28. Solemn tribute, tricolor flag and the common desire to have the right verb to evoke the journey of a man who had recently retired from work, but who had every intention of continuing to invest in the good of those administered.
The task was entrusted to the first assistant, Catherine Mestiri, to evoke the commitment to the village that the Warlouzet family decided to live in more than 20 years ago. Éric Warlouzet is originally from the North, near Sequedin, but for professional reasons, he moves closer to the Paris region. There are many passions, but cinema and horses figure prominently. He also embarked on his professional journey with great passion. An executive at SNCF, he left his mark by joining the investigating office. One of the big files he worked on was the Brétigny-sur-Orge disaster.
His personal life recounted with tenderness and emotion
His nephew retraced part of the mayor’s personal life with tenderness and emotion.
Then came the political aspect of the life of this tall man, with a good-natured appearance, fine culture and always having the right word.
One of the authorities present had clearly identified this personality. Arnaud Dumontier, mayor of the neighboring town of Pont-Sainte-Maxence and president of the Community of Communes of Pays d’Oise and Halatte affirms this. “Eric Warlouzet was one of the vice-presidents of the intercommunality and his absence will leave a big void.”
The president will have several striking sentences in his tribute speech, proving, if necessary, the bond of deep friendship which united these two men.
Eric, he’s a physique!
“Eric, first of all, is physically…tall…imposing but, in truth, extremely discreet.
I saw him always arriving with his confident step as if nothing on his way could ever disturb him, which ultimately betrayed a humble nature…” recalls Mayor Maxipontain who does not forget in passing to note “a rare intelligence”, “that of mastering the most difficult files, those which take years to complete without ever being discouraged from moving forward”.
The intercommunal meetings left their mark.
“He always arrived shortly before our meetings and stopped by to tell me, knowing that I hate chatter more than anything (…) knowing that I hate sessions that drag on more than anything, so Éric would spend a head to say to myself: “I have 8 points on the agenda”, which inevitably made me roll my eyes…and I then saw Eric, sitting to my right, and these 8 points which held precisely on a sheet, nay, on a piece of paper no bigger than a metro ticket and that he had absolutely everything in mind as he completely mastered them and knew how to explain them to us concisely and pertinently.
Conciseness and relevance
The president says so. The two of them didn’t need many words to understand each other. They had in common the issues linked to the proximity of their two territories.
And to conclude, Arnaud Dumontier noted the presence of a political class united for this tribute. “Political class and the representative of the State bow without distinction before the “builder” mayor that he was, and everyone knows that he had criticisms regarding these projects… Criticisms generally from those who will never nothing for the community, of those who give lessons on social networks, of those who think that “we just have to, we have to”.
For the president of the intercommunality, as for many present at this tribute on January 8: “the truth is that Eric deeply marked this territory of Les Ageux and that he knowingly prepared its future”.
The rest of the ceremony was, at the family’s choice, in the strictest privacy. But this last civil, republican tribute will have marked more than one, especially since everyone was able to pay their respects in front of the coffin, marking the attachment to this mayor who left at only the age of 65.
