Pierre-Yves Collombat

Pierre-Yves Collombat was born on 18 July 1945 in Voiron, in the Isère department of south-eastern France, and grew up there. Marité Collombat, who became his first wife, told Var-Matin that they were neighbours from the age of eight: "We lived through everything together, until our divorce. We grew up side by side, we learned to ride bikes together." The details of his parents and childhood family have not been made public.

Collombat and Marité both entered the École normale supérieure de Saint-Cloud, one of France's elite teacher training schools. They took part in the marches of May 1968 and were then members of the Unified Socialist Party (PSU). He went on to pass the agrégation in philosophy, the highest competitive teaching qualification in France, and was a professeur agrégé de philosophie by profession, according to the Senate.

Teaching. After qualifying, Collombat taught philosophy in Tunisia, then joined the école normale in Draguignan (Var) as a teacher of educational psychology (psychopédagogie).

Mayor of Figanières. He and his wife settled in Figanières, a village in the upper Var. He became deputy to the mayor, Jean Chiarini, and on Chiarini's death in 1983 he was elected mayor, a post he held until March 2005, when he was succeeded by Bernard Chilini. Var-Matin highlighted the creation of the Jean-Cavaillès collège among his achievements. He also served as a vice-president of the Dracénie urban community.

Department and rural mayors. From 1992 to 2015 he was general councillor of the Var for the canton of Callas, where he presided over the left-wing group La Gauche Varoise. He led the Var association of rural mayors for about 27 years and was first vice-president of the Association des maires ruraux de France (AMRF).

Senator for the Var (2004 to 2020). Elected on 26 September 2004 and re-elected on 28 September 2014, he sat with the Socialist group (2004 to 2011), the RDSE group (2011 to 2017) and the CRCE group (2017 to 2020). He was vice-president of the law committee for six years, secretary of the delegation for local authorities and decentralisation, and vice-president of the delegation for foresight. Key work included: rapporteur of the joint information mission on the 2010 and 2011 Var floods (report of 24 September 2012); reports on the financial crisis for the foresight delegation (2017 and 2019); rapporteur of the 2018 commission of inquiry into changes in the senior civil service, chaired by Vincent Delahaye; questioning in the 2018 Benalla affair hearings; a 2019 bill creating a statute for communal elected officials; and the 2020 reports on the Covid-19 health state of emergency. He did not stand for re-election in 2020 and his term ended on 30 September 2020.

Collombat's first wife was Marité Collombat, whom he had known since childhood in Voiron; they later divorced. At his death he was married to Caroline Gentreau. He had three sons, Benoît, Benjamin and Antoine. His eldest son, Benoît Collombat, is a senior reporter (grand reporter) at France Inter, known for his investigative work, including the documentary "Affaire Boulin, révélations sur un crime d'État". For decades Collombat's home and political base was Figanières in the Var. Marité described him as "particularly intelligent and cultured, but never arrogant", someone who never dropped quotes from Socrates or Aristotle to shine in company, and who was "stubborn in the good sense of the word".

Collombat was a man of the left with republican values who prized independence from party discipline. He left the Socialist Party in 2011 and later sat with the communist-led CRCE group while being administratively attached to La France insoumise. He was a fierce critic of what he called the oligarchic drift of the Fifth Republic and of neoliberal finance, arguing in his 2019 report that the first two decades of the 21st century showed "the bankruptcy of the neoliberal restoration begun some fifty years ago". He spoke against the European budget treaty (TSCG). He defended the commune as the root of the Republic, campaigned for a proper statute for local elected officials and repeatedly sought to protect mayors from what he saw as excessive criminal liability, notably by redefining the notion of "any interest" in the offence of illegal taking of interest. On secularism, he argued in 2019 that school should form free republican minds and opposed banning headscarf-wearing mothers from accompanying school trips. In 2024 he joined the Frexit-oriented Union populaire républicaine list for the European elections, in last place.

Collombat is remembered above all as a champion of rural France. The AMRF saluted "a free spirit, an incisive pen, a formidable speaker, who refused conventional speeches and compromises of circumstance". Senate President Gérard Larcher said that his terms were marked by constant commitment to local authorities and regional planning, and that "those who worked with him knew he had temperament and a voice". Former senator André Guiol recalled shared battles in the general council of the Var "defending the communal level with ardour", and Hubert Falco, a political opponent, praised "a man of conviction, a man of the ground". His Senate report on the Var floods remains a reference on flood risk management in south-eastern France.

No national decorations for Collombat have been documented in the sources consulted. He received a medal from the Association of Mayors of the Var (AMF 83), alongside François Trucy and Pierre Blanc, as listed on the association's website. On 21 October 2026 the French Senate paid him an official tribute in plenary session, with senators and members of the government standing for a moment of silence.

Books: "Responsabilité pénale des communes" (Litec, 1999, with Dominique Pipard-Thavez), a practical guide in the Guides pratiques de l'administration territoriale series; "Abrégé de dépannage administratif à l'usage des maires ruraux" (AMRF, 2008). He also contributed to "Responsabilité et démocratie" (Dalloz, 2008, edited by Bertrand Mathieu and Michel Verpeaux).

Senate reports: "Se donner les moyens de ses ambitions: les leçons des inondations du Var et du sud-est de la France" (report no. 775, 2012); "Une crise en quête de fin: quand l'Histoire bégaie" (report no. 393, 2017); "Bilan de faillite, chronique d'un naufrage annoncé" (report no. 125, 2019); and the 2020 law committee reports on the Covid-19 health state of emergency, including "Mieux organiser la Nation en temps de crise".

Media: his Senate interventions were regularly covered by Public Sénat, and a YouTube channel in his name published videos of his Senate speeches.

Collombat's outspokenness occasionally caused friction. In 2019 Roger Karoutchi, chairing the foresight delegation, said he did not agree with all of its proposals, notably those with political implications, and the delegation published his financial-crisis report with the mention that its personal section committed only the rapporteur. His decision in 2024 to appear on the Union populaire républicaine list, which campaigns for France to leave the European Union, marked a further break with his former Socialist colleagues. No legal controversies involving him have been documented.

Pierre-Yves Collombat died of illness on Saturday 17 October 2026 in Saint-Maur-des-Fossés (Val-de-Marne), aged 81, according to Var-Matin and a death notice published on 19 October 2026. The specific illness has not been made public. Var-Matin reported that his cremation would take place the following Friday in the Paris region, in strict privacy. Tributes came from the AMRF, the Gauche Républicaine et Socialiste party, former senator André Guiol, former Toulon mayor Hubert Falco, Fréjus mayor David Rachline and Carine Leroy. On 21 October 2026 Senate President Gérard Larcher opened the sitting with a tribute and a moment of silence.