French politician Simone Veil, who survived the Holocaust and led campaigns for the legalisation of abortion in France in the 1970s, died at her home in Paris on Friday, her family said. She was 89 years old.
A Jewish survivor of the Nazi death camps at Auschwitz-Birkenau and Bergen-Belsen with the prisoner number 78651 tattooed on her arm, she was a fervent European and fighter for civil liberties, becoming the first elected president of the European Parliament in 1979. Although out of the national limelight since 2007 when she quit her seat at France’s top constitutional court, she commanded wide respect across the political spectrum and remained among the most popular politicians in opinion polls.
Tributes honouring her courage and determination to advance women's rights were paid from within France and beyond.
