50 years ago, Pierre Baudis was elected mayor of Toulouse

If Pierre Baudis (1916-1997) came to political responsibilities by being elected deputy for Haute-Garonne in 1958, the year of the birth of the Fifth Republic, he was more of a man of the Fourth. Re-elected in 1962, he sat in the Democratic Center group (Independents and MRP), a centrist rather anti-Gaullist right. In addition, since 1959, Pierre Baudis has been deputy mayor to Louis Bazerque, a socialist elected a year earlier on the Capitol. An alliance that hardly shocks in this radical land where partisan labels count less than certain selective affinities. After supporting the candidacy of centrist Jean Lecanuet for the presidential election of 1965, Pierre Baudis was defeated in the legislative elections of 1967 by a certain André Rousselet (a faithful of François Mitterrand who would become the boss of Canal +), but he regained his seat in June 68 and is related to the group of independent Republicans supporting Giscard d’Estaing.

In charge of the Toulouse town hall of the social sector, he ran in March 1971 against Louis Bazerque, to whom we owe the Mirail and Empalot. To everyone’s surprise, he largely won in the second round with 58% of the vote. This is the birth of a political singularity in Toulouse: a left-wing city voting mainly on the left in presidential elections, Toulouse generally votes on the right in municipal elections…

From Pierre to Dominica

Re-elected deputy in 1973, Pierre Baudis had to face a great figure of the PS during the municipal elections of 1977 in the person of Alain Savary. The centrist kept the Capitol, but he was beaten in the legislative elections of 1978 by the young socialist Gérard Bapt. A year later, the mayor of Toulouse also became a Member of the European Parliament. In Toulouse, the management of Pierre Baudis is consensus. We are grateful to him for having foiled the astonishing project, launched by Bazerque, of a fast lane on the Canal du Midi. He pedestrianized streets (including rue Saint-Rome), modernized districts like Saint-Georges, developed the city without upsetting it too much.

In 1983, he decided not to stand for re-election after twelve years in office as mayor. However, he suggests to Toulouse a successor who is none other than his son Dominique. We know the great reporter and presenter of the television news of TF1, we will discover the candidate and the politician triumphantly elected to the Capitol at 35 years old with nearly 59% of the votes in the first round. But this is another story…

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