By becoming president of the Association of Elected Members of the Departments of France, François Sauvadet returned to the national political scene. He takes over the Udi label from which he had moved away from the 2021 regionals. Added to this is a change in the leadership of the centrist party with the arrival of Hervé Marseille.
In 2021, the campaign for the last regional elections had driven a wedge between François Sauvadet and the UDI, a party which is one of the heirs of French-style Christian democracy.
Today, while the UDI turns the page on the presidency of Jean-Christophe Lagarde with the appointment of Hervé Marseille, the Côte-d’Orien is back in the fold to weigh, at national and local level, on the next deadlines: European in 2024, municipal in 2026 and presidential in 2027.
Commitment at the core
François Sauvadet was always in the center: member successively of the Union for French Democracy (UDF), of the New Center (NC) and of the Union of Democrats and Independents (UDI).
Created in October 2012 by Jean-Louis Borloo, coming from the Radical Party, with the support in particular of Simone Veil and Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, the UDI takes back the torch of the UDF by proposing an inspired political offer, according to the its various components, of Christian democracy, of radicalism and of social liberalism.
Deputy of the Côte d’Or for 23 years, from 1993 to 2016, François Sauvadet was Minister of Public Administration, in 2011 and 2012, in the third government of François Fillon, during the mandate of Nicolas Sarkozy. In 2012, he approved a law on equal professional opportunities for women and men in public administration and on easier access of contract employees to civil servant status until 2020.
Clash with UDI in 2021
Councilor of the Côte-d’Or departmental assembly since 1998, elected in the canton of Vitteaux, François Sauvadet has presided over the community since 2008, succeeding Louis de Broissia (UMP).
In May 2020, preparing for the departmental elections concurrently with the regional elections, François Sauvadet had founded his micro-party: La Côte-d’Or passionately (LCOP). A movement which, in coalition with Les Républicains, has allowed rural elected officials reluctant to display a national label to present themselves under the same banner.
The 2021 regional elections had led François Sauvadet to retire to his bastion on the East Coast. The choice of Gilles Platret (LR) to enter into agreements with former leaders of the Front National to run for the presidency of the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté Region had caused political differences.
Emmanuelle Coint (LR), close to François Sauvadet, had slammed the door while the latter would have apparently avoided the UDI which, at the regional level, had won the case against Michel Zumkeller, deputy for the Territory of Belfort, supporting the approach of Gilles Platter.
The horizon is clearing nationwide
Since July 2021, François Sauvadet has presided over the Assembly of Departments of France, making him a regular interlocutor of Matignon and the Elysee. A real springboard to return to being placed on the national political spectrum.
Turning the page on the presidency of Jean-Christophe Lagarde, mired in judicial proceedings and the consequences of media slippages, the deputy of Hauts-de-Seine Hervé Marseille was appointed president of the UDI on December 10 by proposing a line of autonomy against Renaissance and the republicans .
Just like the departmental federation of the Côte-d’Or UDI (read the press release), François Sauvadet congratulated Hervé Marseille.
The political prospects therefore appear more favorable for François Sauvadet, who has indicated that he has reconnected with the Udi. A decision that should bring in its wake several elected representatives of the Côte-d’Oriens who, deploring the bickering between the national and local level, had prudently kept their card without flaunting it.
François Sauvadet counts on the “decentralizing will” of Laurent Wauquiez
“We have to prepare for the future,” he confided to François Sauvadet Info Dijon, on December 12. The centrist said he “trusted” Hervé Marseille to get the party back on track so that the “profoundly European” and “humanist” party would defend its colors in the next installments.
In terms of territorial organization, François Sauvadet welcomed the action of Laurent Wauquiez (LR), president of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Region, in his way of “practicing subsidiarity” with the Departments.
Depending on what, the centrist relies more on Laurent Wauquiez than Édouard Philippe (Horizons) to show “decentralizing will”. Furthermore, the Côte-d’Orien makes no secret of its “friendship” for the Auvergne.
Thus, while Emmanuel Macron cannot run for a third consecutive term, to prepare for the future to consider alternation, there would be only one step.
Jean-Christophe Tardivon
