PRESIDENT MACRON & WIFE BRIGITTE PAY TRIBUTE TO BERNARD TAPIE WHO DIED AT 78

USPA NEWS - Bernard Tapie, the most famous and admired French businessman, and former boss of Olympique de Marseille died this Sunday morning October 3 at 8:40 am, at the age of 78. He fought with dignity and courage, since 2017 against stomach cancer with extension to the esophagus. He finished “the epilogue of his life” as he said as his wife, at her home in Rue des Saint Père in Paris 7eme, alongside his family, children, grandchildren, after a long fight against disease. The whole of France is moved, and the President of the Republic Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte have published a press release of tribute and condolences to his family. We are releasing this entire press release, in its entirety.

BERNARD TAPIE WAS A CHARISMATIC SELF-MADE MAN WHO HAD THOUSAND LIVES AND SAID HE WAS NOT AFRAID OF DEATH Bernard Tapie, the most famous and admired French businessman, and former boss of Olympique de Marseille died this Sunday morning October 3 at 8:40 am, at the age of 78. He fought with dignity and courage, since 2017 against stomach cancer with extension to the esophagus. He finished “the epilogue of his life” as he said as his wife, at her home in Rue des Saint Père in Paris 7eme, alongside his family, children, grandchildren, after a long fight against disease. The one that the Marseillais call the "boss", leaves a great void, in France, because this self-made-man, was a character out of the ordinary as much by his personality, his innate charisma, and his great capacity succeeded, fall and straightens. Bernard Tapie had “1000 and a life” because he was, Businessman, serial entrepreneur (Buyout of Adidas, Wonder, Vie Claire, a symbolic 1franc), actor, singer, sportsman, Patron of OM Marseille (Who won the Champions League in 1993), European Deputy, Minister of the City (Under the presidential mandate of Francois Mitterand), Press group boss, not to mention the passage through prison, following a judgment concerning a match-fixing match between Valenciennes and Marseille. France wants to lose one of its great icons, in the person of Bernard Tapie, who is unanimous in all social classes and ages, to represent this charismatic "Bonhomme" in the image of this cliché of "Titi Parisien », Started from nothing, from a modest background to reach the heights of glory and business success, while also assuming the falls and procedures (25 years of trial on the Credit Lyonnais affair). He had people and people returned it to him because it was sincere and it is also astonishing to note that he represents a model of modern hero, perhaps the only self-made man, the most combative, in the image of 'an American dream… but the Frenchwoman. His professional, social and popular rise is like a Hollywood movie and could have been American in his rage to win and to be proud to get wealthy….------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The whole of France is moved, and the President of the Republic Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte have published a press release of tribute and condolences to his family. We are releasing this entire press release, in its entirety.

STATEMENT DELIVERED BY PRESIDENTIAL COUPLE EMMANUEL AND BRIGITTE MACRON----------------------- « He have had a thousand lives. Businessman and politician, a great figure in sport, culture and the media, Bernard Tapie has passed away today. Publicized by some, doomed to moaning by others, he disturbed as much as he fascinated, because he stepped over all barriers on the way to his success. His birth in 1943, in the 20th arrondissement of Paris, to a milling worker father and a nursing assistant mother, had not, however, given him any obvious fame. Carried by an energy which pushed him to seize the world, to seize his chance with both hands, to embrace all possibilities, Bernard Tapie forged an extraordinary destiny. Not feeling the burning call of a vocation, if not for success, he was going to take all the paths that fortune had to offer him. He first graduated as an electronics technician, tried his hand at singing and then in car racing. Yet, it was in the business world that this young Rastignac showed all his talent. In the wake of a first successful business selling televisions, he multiplied his projects, buying here and there bankrupt companies, often for a symbolic euro, which he sold a few years later for colossal sums. Thus was born the Tapie Empire, of next to nothing, mad daring, a thirst for action and a hunger for adventure that won him almost everything. The talented investor and entrepreneur in the process became a star of the small screen: he who had started his career selling television sets became a big figure of the small skylight. The success of his show Ambitions, where he helped young people set up their businesses live, soon made him a king of audiences. Brilliant, charismatic, attractive, Bernard Tapie was also a great patron of sports teams who led some to legend. Around Bernard Hinault, he founded the cycling team La Vie claire which led the champion to his fifth victory in the Tour in 1985. Above all, it is with Olympique de Marseille that Bernard Tapie did wonders: the team, redeemed in complete escheat, literally resuscitated under his aegis. It was the heyday of Deschamps and Desailly, Barthez and Cantona, Boli and Jean-Pierre Papin. It was the mythical time of all the exploits and all the trophies: the golden age of OM, which in the early 1990s became four times champion of France, and in 1993 won a Champions League - the only one of all the history of French football. Combining his talent for business and his passion for sport, Bernard Tapie then bought the German brand Adidas. Once again, the miracle happened: the company, on the verge of bankruptcy in 1991, became profitable again in two years. The business world was now at the head of the largest French fortunes. With insatiable ambition, he embraced other conquests, political, journalistic, media. During the presidency of François Mitterrand, he became successively general councilor of Bouches-du-Rhône, French deputy, European deputy (MEP), then Minister of the City in the government of Pierre Beregovoy.To his many hats, he added that of press boss, at the head of dailies such as La Provence, Nice-Matin and Corse-Matin, that of actor too, who rose to the top of the bill alongside Fabrice Luchini and Pierre Arditi in Hommes, femmes, manual by Claude Lelouch. He tried his hand at the theater, appeared on television in the role of commissioner Valence and as a sports consultant, recorded forty-five laps on titles written by Didier Barbelivien The golden legend mingled with the shadows of a court chronicle: lost trials, heavy convictions - decisions he would have challenged all his life. This man who had a fighting spirit to move mountains and win the moon never laid down his arms, and fought cancer until his last moments. The President of the Republic and his wife are touched by the death of Bernard Tapie, whose ambition, energy and enthusiasm have been a source of inspiration for generations of French people. To his family and loved ones, they send their respectful condolences. » Source: Elysee, French Presidency.?