Early life Jean-Claude Gaudin was born on 8 October 1939 in
Mazargues, a neighbourhood of the
9th arrondissement in
Marseille,
Bouches-du-Rhône, France. His ancestors had lived in Mazargues since 1600. He was re-elected again in 1971.
National Assembly In 1974, he took part in the presidential campaign of
Valéry Giscard d'Estaing. In 1978, he won his first election for the
National Assembly as the candidate in the 2nd district of the
Rhône delta. He beat the outgoing socialist deputy,
Charles-Émile Loo, with 53.7% of the votes cast. In June 1981, he won reelection. He then became president of the
Union for French Democracy (UDF) group in the National Assembly. In 1986, he was given the responsibility for the executive of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur. On 25 April 1986, he became president of the first regional council of
Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur elected by direct vote. In 1988, after the dissolution of the National Assembly, he was again re-elected, for the fourth time, deputy of the Rhône delta for 2nd district of Marseille, with 60.63% of the votes cast. His presidency of the UDF Group in the National Assembly was also renewed.
Senate, Mayor of Marseille and Minister In September 1989, he was a candidate for the senatorial elections and won the district. In 1983, Gaudin tried to unseat
Gaston Defferre as
Mayor of Marseille, and lost by a handful of votes. In 1989, he was expected to win against Defferre's successor
Robert Vigouroux, but lost again. In 1995, Gaudin stood for the post of Mayor along with maintaining his position as a
senator. He won with an absolute majority of 55 City councilmen out of 101 and was installed as Mayor of Marseille on 25 June 1995. From June 1995 to September 1996, Gaudin was president of football club
Olympique de Marseille. The club had recently filed for bankruptcy in the aftershocks of the
French football bribery scandal. On 7 November 1995, on a proposal from
Alain Juppé, President
Jacques Chirac named Jean-Claude Gaudin
Minister for Integration and City and Regional Planning. In 2013, he announced he would run for Mayor a fourth time. In the first round of
the election, he obtained 37.64% of the votes. In the second round he garnered 42.39% while the Socialist candidate got 31,09 and Front National's candidate 26,51. On 4 April, the municipal council in Marseille elected him as mayor for a new period with no opposing candidate. In June 2017, he announced that he would not be seeking another term in the
2020 municipal elections. He held his last municipal council—the 198th— on 27 January 2020 and supported the candidacy of Martine Vassal against
Bruno Gilles to succeed to him. In May 2020, during the
COVID-19 pandemic, Gaudin announced ordering 1.5 million
face masks for residents of Marseille, and advocated a policy of voluntary screening. The left-wing candidate
Michèle Rubirola was elected by the municipal council to succeed to him on 4 July 2020. Soon after, he was named by the new mayor as head of the ecumenical association Marseille Espérance, founded in 1990 by his predecessor
Robert Vigouroux.
No-show jobs scandal A few months after Gaudin stepped down as mayor, a
preliminary hearing related to supposed
no-show jobs at the
Marseille City Hall, started after a system of false recordkeeping of
SAMU Social employees' attendance was revealed, and led the
National Financial Prosecutor's Office (PNF) to send him, with six of his relatives, before the
tribunal correctionnel. The conclusions of the PNF call out his management of human resources by pointing out undue overtime, as well as unjustified absenteeism in the SAMU Social and in the museums and libraries of the city. During the hearings, Gaudin regularly justified himself by mentioning a "social peace" and the fear of trade union reactions. The PNF pointed out several grievances, including the "lack of control of work efficiency", the "flat rate of overtime", or "the payment of unworked overtime", in numerous services including the SAMU Social,
Allô mairie, museums, a city garage, etc. More than 800 agents were claimed to have benefited from these irregularities, with a cost for the city reaching one million euros per year. Jean-Claude Gaudin and four of his associates ended up pleading guilty of "neglectful embezzlement" in a
plea bargain procedure. The sentence suggested by the PNF was negotiated on 22 March before being approved by the judge. Gaudin was sentenced to a €10,000 fine and a six-month suspended prison sentence in March 2022.
Honours On 11 July 1997, Gaudin was made Knight of the
Legion of Honour, with which he was formally decorated on 14 October. He was promoted to Officer on 14 July 2018. On 26 September 2016, Gaudin was awarded the
Plaque rank of the Order of the Aztec Eagle by the president of Mexico,
Enrique Peña Nieto.
Personal life and death Gaudin was a practising
Catholic. ==References==