Senator LR Gilbert Bouchet, who presented the law aimed at improving the management of Charcot disease, from which he himself suffered, died on Monday at the age of 78, announced the city of Tain-l’Hermitage (Drôme), of which he was mayor.
“With deep emotion and immense sadness, the city of Tain-l’Hermitage learned of the death of Gilbert Bouchet, which occurred on Monday, October 20, 2025, as a result of Charcot disease,” writes the municipality in a press release, which salutes “the memory of a man who will have profoundly marked its history.”
“He stayed true to his ideas”
Weakened and on a respirator, Gilbert Bouchet personally defended in October 2024 the reform of care for patients affected by this disease, also called amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), which condemns those affected to progressive paralysis that affects the entire body and leads to death in a few years.
The senator’s forceful testimony caused a wave of emotion in the Senate chambers. The text was adopted unanimously in the National Assembly last February. “Gilbert Bouchet faced the disease with the same combativeness that characterized his entire life. Until his last moments, he remained faithful to his ideas, his commitment and his frankness, a symbol of a sincere and unwavering chosen one,” greets the city of Tain-l’Hermitage, where he was elected mayor in 1995.
Gilbert Bouchet was born on January 8, 1947 in this town on the banks of the Ardèche and was mayor for more than 20 years. A professional hotel business manager, he became a senator for Drôme for the first time in 2014. Charcot disease affects between 6 and 7,000 people in France.
Source: BFM TV
