Édouard Balladur, Embattled French Prime Minister, Dies at 97

His time in office coincided with France’s fraught role in the 1994 Rwandan genocide and the corruption scandal known as the Karachi affair. Édouard Balladur, a former French prime minister who stoutly defended his country’s contentious intervention in Rwanda’s genocide, and who fought into his 90s to be cleared of involvement in a long-running corruption scandal, died on Monday in Paris. To some, the conservative Mr. Balladur seemed haughty and aloof, a perfectly-tailored caricature of a French political establishment that traced its roots to elite schools such as the École Nationale d’Administration, of which he was an alumnus. Others said his polished manner underscored a preference for persuasion and diplomacy over more muscular forms of exerting his will. Clad in bespoke suits from London’s Savile Row, he sought to project a patrician image driven by a fierce ambition for the highest office in the land.

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