Jean-Claude Gaudin, the emblematic mayor of Marseille, died this Monday at the age of 84, Emmanuel Macron announced on X (formerly Twitter). “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 am thinking of his loved ones and the people of Marseille,” the president wrote.
Gaudin died in his second home in Saint-Zacharie (Var), his secretary confirmed to France Bleu Provence. He left his mark on local and national political life by devoting two-thirds of his life to politics, accumulating more than 120 years of various mandates. He was mayor of Marseille for 25 years, minister, president of the Region, president of the Metropolis and vice-president of the Senate.
Born October 8, 1939 in Mazargues, Jean-Claude Gaudin was the only son of a mason and a worker. He began his political career in 1965 by being elected municipal councilor in Marseille at the age of 26. After an initial failure as mayor of Marseille in 1983, he became president of the PACA regional council in 1986, then senator of Bouches-du-Rhône in 1989.
In June 1995, he realized his dream by becoming mayor of Marseille, a position he held for four consecutive terms until 2020. At the same time, he was appointed minister of regional planning in the Juppé II government. His last mandate was marked by the collapse of several buildings on rue d'Aubagne in 2018, which marred the end of
