Former Marseille mayor Jean-Claude Gaudin is dead

Jean-Claude Gaudin died in the Var, reveals France Bleu Provence. He was 84 years old.

The former mayor of Marseille Jean-Claude Gaudin died at the age of 84, France Bleu Provence learned from its secretary. He died in Saint-Zacharie, in the Var. Mayor of Marseille for 25 years (1995 to 2020), former Minister of the City (1995-1997) in the government of Alain Juppé, president of the region and the metropolis, deputy, then senator and vice-president of the Senate, he had dedicated his life to politics. Coming from the center right, he was one of the figures of the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP), the formation of the right and the center which became Les Républicains.

The only son of a mason and a worker, Jean-Claude Gaudin was born on October 8, 1939 in Mazargues, a district of 9^e district of Marseille. In 1965, the young history and geography professor was elected to the municipal elections on the social-centrist list led by Gaston Defferre, his mentor. At 26 years old, Jean-Claude Gaudin is the youngest municipal councilor of Marseille, recalls France Bleu Provence. Nine years later, in 1974, he participated in the presidential campaign of Valéry Giscard d’Estaing. UDF candidate in 2^e constituency of Bouches-du-Rhône, Jean-Claude Gaudin became a deputy in 1978. Re-elected three times, he sat in the National Assembly until 1989.

In the 1983 municipal elections in Marseille, Jean-Claude Gaudin led the opposition list against Gaston Defferre, then Minister of the Interior. Three years later, in 1986, he became president of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region (a position he held until 1998). In 1988, Jean-Claude Gaudin was elected for a fourth term as deputy in the 2^e constituency of Bouches-du-Rhône, but suffered another failure in the municipal elections in Marseille the following year against Robert Vigouroux, reports France Bleu Provence. In 1989, he realized his teenage dream by becoming senator of Bouches-du-Rhône.

In June 1995, Jean-Claude Gaudin was elected mayor of Marseille, a position he had coveted for twelve years. That same year, in November, he became Minister of Regional Planning, Towns and Integration in the Juppé II government. The same year, he was elected president of the new Marseille-Provence-Métropole urban community. The year 2008 marks the start of his third mandates as mayor of Marseille and senator of Bouches-du-Rhône. In 2014, he began his fourth term as mayor of Marseille and was re-elected to the Senate. In 2015, he took over as head of the Aix-Marseille-Provence metropolis. The President of the Senate Gérard Larcher then offered him a seat on the Constitutional Council which he refused.“It’s an honor. I have weighed things, my heart and my soul are in Marseille”“tweeted” the mayor of the Marseille city at the time. “France loses a great man in the service of politics and territories, I lose a friend”reacts Monday May 20 on X Gérard Larcher.

Little by little, Jean-Claude Gaudin withdrew from political life. From June 2017, he announced that he would not be a candidate in the 2020 municipal elections and gave his support, first to Bruno Gilles then to Martine Vassal. In September of the same year, Jean-Claude Gaudin resigned from his post as senator due to the ban on multiple mandates. He will have carried out more than 120 yearsall portfolios combined, in more than half a century of political life. In September 2018, citing his advanced age, he left the presidency of the metropolis. Martine Vassal, also president of the Bouches-du-Rhône department, succeeds him.

In November 2018, the collapse of several buildings on rue d’Aubagne, which caused the death of eight people, weighed on the end of Jean-Claude Gaudin’s fourth term. The councilor is widely criticized for his inaction. The question will come back to haunt his 198^e and last municipal council, January 27, 2020. In June 2020, the left-wing, environmentalist and citizen coalition Printemps Marseille seized the right-wing town hall. On July 4, in the midst of a health crisis, the “old lion” will arrive through a back door to the podium of the municipal council room to place the mayor’s scarf around the neck of Michèle Rubirola, who succeeds him. The latter resigned in 2020 and handed over her chair to the current mayor of Marseille, Benoît Payan.

Nine months after leaving his chair as mayor of Marseille, Jean-Claude Gaudin publishes his memoirs, Now I’ll tell you everything, in which he recounts the key moments of his political history. After a media tour for “sell” his autobiography, he swears that no one will ever hear from him again.

Justice will nevertheless remember him fondly: in November 2021, he was heard for the first time by the judges as part of the investigation into the tragedy in rue d’Aubagne. Four months later, in March 2022, he appeared in the fictitious overtime case at Marseille town hall. He was sentenced to six months in prison and a fine of 10,000 euros. for “negligent misappropriation of public funds”, after having delayed putting an end to a widespread system of overtime unduly granted to municipal agents, without effective work. He admitted his guilt.

The President of the Republic Emmanuel Macron paid tribute to him in a post on X: “He was Marseille made man. From his city, his passion, he had the accent, the fever, the fraternity. For her, this child from Mazargues had risen to the highest positions in the Republic which he served. I think of his loved ones and the people of Marseille.”