François Grosdidier (; born 25 February 1961) is a French politician. He served as

mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well ...

Metz Metz ( , , lat, Divodurum Mediomatricorum, then ) is a city in northeast France located at the confluence of the Moselle and the Seille rivers. Metz is the prefecture of the Moselle department and the seat of the parliament of the Grand ...

since

2020 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global social and economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, worldwide lockdowns and the largest economic recession since the Great Depression in t ...

. He also represented the Moselle department in the Senate and is a member of The Republicans.

Early life and education

François Grosdidier is the grandson of an historian and the son of an engineer working in the iron and steel industry of

Lorraine Lorraine , also , , ; Lorrain: ''Louréne''; Lorraine Franconian: ''Lottringe''; german: Lothringen ; lb, Loutrengen; nl, Lotharingen is a cultural and historical region in Northeastern France, now located in the administrative region of Gra ...

. After a bad schooling, he joined the French Air Force to serve overseas in

Djibouti Djibouti, ar, جيبوتي ', french: link=no, Djibouti, so, Jabuuti officially the Republic of Djibouti, is a country in the Horn of Africa, bordered by Somalia to the south, Ethiopia to the southwest, Eritrea in the north, and the Red ...

in 1979. He held lot of odd jobs. Then he resumed studies in public law. He was hired as city manager of Amnéville. Part of his family have emigrated in the United States. His cousin, Pierre Grosdidier, is an attorney in Houston, Texas, and became elected councillor in the French Consulate in Houston when Damien Regnard has been inaugurated as senator representing French citizens abroad in 2018.

Political career

His first election campaign dates back to 1973, when he was 12, with Jean Kiffer, member of Parliament and mayor of Amnéville. He joined the right-wing Rally for the Republic, led by Jacques Chirac, in 1981. In 1983 he became chief of the Youth RPR of Moselle. From 1989 to 1995 (one complete term), he was elected municipal councillor of the city of

, seating in the opposition to the mayor,

Jean-Marie Rausch Jean-Marie Rausch (born 24 September 1929 in Sarreguemines) is a French politician who served as the French Minister of Foreign Trade from 1988 to 1991. He became a Knight of the Legion of Honour in 2002. References Living people 1929 bir ...

. Elected in the

regional council of Lorraine In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and the interaction of humanity and t ...

in 1992, he was immediately appointed vice-president of the new president,

Gérard Longuet Gérard Longuet (; born 24 February 1946 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, Hauts-de-Seine) is a French conservative politician who has served as a member of the Senate from 2001 to 2011 and again since 2012, representing Meuse. He served as Minister of ...

. His regional department covered industrial reconversion, new technologies of information, training and professional learning. Reelected in 1998, he was in office until his resignation in 2002. During the

1993 French legislative election French legislative elections took place on 21 and 28 March 1993 to elect the tenth National Assembly of the Fifth Republic. Since 1988, President François Mitterrand and his Socialist cabinets had relied on a relative parliamentary majority. ...

, he contested the seat of the 1st constituency of

Moselle (departement) Moselle () is the most populous department in Lorraine, in the east of France, and is named after the river Moselle, a tributary of the Rhine, which flows through the western part of the department. It had a population of 1,046,543 in 2019.

(part and north of

), a left-wing workers district. He beat the outgoing Parliament member from the

Socialist Party Socialist Party is the name of many different political parties around the world. All of these parties claim to uphold some form of socialism, though they may have very different interpretations of what "socialism" means. Statistically, most of t ...

, former minister of François Mitterrand, becoming at 32 one of the youngest members of the French National Assembly. After supporting Jacques Chirac for the

1995 French presidential election Presidential elections were held in France on 23 April, with a second round on 7 May. Background The Socialist incumbent president François Mitterrand, who had been in office since 1981, did not stand for a third term. He was 78, had term ...

, the Prime minister

Alain Juppé Alain Marie Juppé (; born 15 August 1945) is a French politician. A member of The Republicans (France), The Republicans, he was Prime Minister of France from 1995 to 1997 under President Jacques Chirac, during which period he faced 1995 strikes ...

entrusted him for a parliamentary mission on industrial reconversion. When Jacques Chirac decided to dissolve the National Assembly in 1997, François Grosdidier lost the election against the candidate of the Socialist Party, in the second round. He shortly came back to the local civil service after losing his seat, then he worked in the steel industry. In March 2001, he won the municipal election in Woippy, a poor

suburb city, with 62% in the second round. He was elected mayor by the council in April, and was reelected in 2008 and 2014, both in the first round. During his three terms as mayor, he renovated the city housing and restored security by an increasing of number of police officers. The city has gained 4000 more inhabitants. During the 2002 French legislative election, he won again the seat of the Moselle's 1st constituency with 55% of the vote, and was reelected again in 2007 with 52%. During his terms, he has committed to immigration issues, and was an opponent to the using of genetically modified organisms. During the

2005 French riots The 2005 French riots (french: Émeutes de 2005 dans les Banlieues Françaises), was a three-week period of riots in the suburbs of Paris and other French cities, in October and November 2005. These riots involved youth in violent attacks, and t ...

, he was threatened after filing a complaint against some rappers accused of racist lyrics against the French. He was a supporter of French President Nicolas Sarkozy. From 2006 to 2009, he was president of the right-wing

Union for a Popular Movement The Union for a Popular Movement (french: link=no, Union pour un mouvement populaire, ; UMP, ) was a centre-right List of political parties in France, political party in France that was one of the two major party, major contemporary political pa ...

party in Moselle. From 2009 to 2018, he was designated president of the Moselle Organization of mayors, representing the interests of the 730 municipalities of this

département In the administrative divisions of France, the department (french: département, ) is one of the three levels of government under the national level (" territorial collectivities"), between the administrative regions and the communes. Ninety ...

. During the

2011 French Senate election A Senate election was held for 165 of the 348 seats in the Senate of France on 25 September 2011. Senate members were primarily elected by municipal officials, and the number of senators was increased from 343 to 348, due to the growth of Franc ...

, (indirect election in order to renew half of the Senate), François Grosdidier contested one of the 5 seats of Moselle. He received, on a party-list proportional representation voting system, 411 votes of the 2833 local officials. He was reelected in 2017 after his first six-years term with 596 votes. In the Senate, he is vice-president of the local government committee, member of the law permanent committee. In 2018, he led an inquiry parliamentary commission about French police. He was elected as president of

The Republicans (France) The Republicans (french: Les Républicains, ; LR) is a liberal-conservative political party in France, largely inspired by the Gaullist tradition. It holds pro-European views. The party was formed on 30 May 2015 from the renaming and refoundati ...

party in Moselle from 2016 to 2018. He supported

for the

2016 The Republicans (France) presidential primary The Republicans held a presidential primary election, officially called the open primary of the right and centre (french: primaire ouverte de la droite et du centre), to select a candidate for the 2017 presidential election. It took place on 20 ...

. After his reelection as senator in 2017, he was forced to resign from his office of mayor of Woippy, due to the effective date of the 2014 law banning dual mandate for members of both houses of Parliament. However, he can remain as member of the town council. On 29 March 2019, he announced his candidacy for mayor of the city of Metz in the 2020 election. On the 3rd of July 2020, he officially became Mayor of Metz after being elected on the 28th of June.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Grosdidier, Francois 1961 births Living people Politicians from Metz The Republicans (France) politicians The Social Right French Senators of the Fifth Republic Mayors of places in Grand Est Deputies of the 12th National Assembly of the French Fifth Republic Deputies of the 13th National Assembly of the French Fifth Republic Senators of Moselle (department)