Patrick Devedjian (; 26 August 1944 – 28 March 2020) was a French politician of the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) party. A close adviser of Nicolas Sarkozy since the 1990s, he was Minister under the Prime Minister in charge of the Implementation of the Recovery Plan, a special ministerial post created for two years following the global financial crisis of 2008, a tenure which commenced in December 2008. He was of Armenian descent. In the night of 28 to 29 March 2020, he died of COVID-19 during the coronavirus pandemic. Youth Devedjian was born in Fontainebleau, Seine-et-Marne. He was the grandson of the Armenian zoologist and Ottoman bureaucrat Karekin Deveciyan. His father was born in Sivas, Ottoman Empire and arrived in France after the First World War. Devedjian received his early education in an Armenian school in Sèvres. He continued his education at the Panthéon-Assas University. He joined the far-right group Occident in 1963, at the age of 17. In a 2014 interview, he stated he regretted his past membership in the organization, and that he had "never condoned any crime". He was admitted to the Paris Bar in 1970. He became a militant in the Gaullist movement in 1971 and took part in the foundation of the Rally for the Republic (RPR) party in 1976. Career Mayor of Antony and Deputy In 1983, Devedjian was elected Mayor of Antony, a position he would hold until 2002 with re-elections in 1989, 1995 and 2001. In 1986, he also became a Deputy in the National Assembly from the Hauts-de-Seine department and was re-elected six times in 1988, 1993, 1997, 2002, 2007 and 2012. He was a member of the Assembly Committee on Finance and was rapporteur of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade Committee. In 1992, he was one of the few members of the RPR who voted to support the Maastricht Treaty. During the 1995 presidential campaign, he supported Édouard Balladur together with Nicolas Sarkozy, and suffered unpopularity with the RPR after Balladur's defeat against Jacques Chirac. He became a close adviser to Nicolas Sarkozy and came back into favour during the presidential campaign of 2002. Second Chirac presidency After Jacques Chirac’s reelection in 2002, Nicolas Sarkozy, who became Minister of the Interior and de facto Number 2 of Jean-Pierre Raffarin's government, chose Patrick Devedjian to be his Deputy Minister for Local Liberties, in charge of local