Jean-Marie Demange of ruling UMP party in France kills lover , commits suicide - French political life scandalised

65 year old Jean-Marie Demange was a heart surgeon, a leading light in the ruling Right-wing UMP party , member of the French Parliament and had been mayor of Thionville a town of 47,000 in the Moselle region for 13 years. He had lost the position to the Socialist Bertrand Mertz, who won with 51.5% of the vote. in local elections in March.

It appears he killed his lover (Karine "A") with a shot to her head at point blank range with an automatic pistol on the balcony of her apartment, after what witnesses called a heated argument - which were apparently quite frequent.

It appears he then retreated to the apartment and shot himself.

Demange, a member of the parliament's foreign affairs commission, was also in the middle of a rather messy divorce.

Under French parliamentary rules, he will be replaced in the National Assembly by his number two, Anne Grommerch.