Hélène Mandroux-Colas (born 1 December 1940) is a French politician. A member of 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 th ...

(PS) since 1982, her career in

Montpellier Montpellier (; ) is a city in southern France near the Mediterranean Sea. One of the largest urban centres in the region of Occitania (administrative region), Occitania, Montpellier is the prefecture of the Departments of France, department of ...

debuted in

Georges Frêche Georges Frêche (; July 9, 1938 – October 24, 2010) was a French politician. He served as President of the Languedoc-Roussillon Region from 2004 until his death: prior to that, he had been mayor of Montpellier for 27 years, and was also a f ...

's municipal administration. Frêche gave her important responsibilities such as finances, municipal staff, legal affairs since 1995, and vice-mayor from 2001. She became

mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a Municipal corporation, 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 responsibilitie ...

of Montpellier in 2004, following the resignation of Frêche, who could not cumulate the job as mayor with his new role as President of the

Languedoc-Roussillon Languedoc-Roussillon (; ; ) is a former regions of France, administrative region of France. On 1 January 2016, it joined with the region of Midi-Pyrénées to become Occitania (administrative region), Occitania. It comprised five departments o ...

Region In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as areas, zones, lands or territories, are portions of the Earth's surface that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and ...

. She defeated her

UMP UMP may refer to: Science * Ultra metal-poor star, refers to a type of star with extremely low levels of heavier elements * Uniformly most powerful test, in statistical hypothesis testing * Uridine monophosphate, a nucleotide * Utility maximizat ...

opponent

Jacques Domergue Jacques Domergue (born 25 March 1953) is a French politician. He was a member of the National Assembly of France for the Hérault department from 2002 to 2012, for the 2nd constituency from 2002 to 2007, and the 1st constituency from 2007 to 20 ...

in a three-way runoff during the

2008 French municipal elections The French municipal elections of 2008 were held on 9 and 16 March to elect the municipal councils of France's 36,782 communes. The first task of each newly constituted municipal council was to elect a mayor. Municipal councilors, and the may ...

. Within the party, she was a supporter of

Ségolène Royal Ségolène Royal (; born Marie-Ségolène Royal; 22 September 1953) is a French politician who took part in the 2007 French presidential election, losing to Nicolas Sarkozy in the second round. She was the first woman in France's history to r ...

at the

Reims Congress The Reims Congress was the twenty-second national congress of the French Socialist Party (''Parti socialiste'' or PS), taking place from 14 to 16 November 2008 in the city of Reims in the Marne. Incumbent First Secretary François Hollande announ ...

, and became one of Royal's major regional allies with

Gérard Collomb Gérard Collomb OQ (; 20 June 1947 – 25 November 2023) was a French politician who served as Mayor of Lyon from 2001 to 2017 and again from 2018 until 2020. He joined La République En Marche! (LREM) in 2017, when he left the Socialist Party ...

and Jean-Noël Guérini. Despite being close to Frêche in the past, she has recently distanced herself from him following his notoriously controversial remarks. On 28 January 2010, following controversial comments made by Frêche about

Laurent Fabius Laurent Fabius (; born 20 August 1946) is a French politician. A member of the Socialist Party (France), Socialist Party, he previously served as Prime Minister of France from 17 July 1984 to 20 March 1986. Fabius was 37 years old when he was a ...

Martine Aubry Martine Louise Marie Aubry (; née Delors; born 8 August 1950) is a French politician. She was the First Secretary of the French Socialist Party (''Parti Socialiste'', or PS) from November 2008 to April 2012, and has been the Mayor (France), M ...

asked Mandroux to form a list supported by the party for the 2010 regional elections.. Her list received the endorsement of the PS against Frêche's dissident list, but did not prevent Frêche from retaining the presidency of the region.

References

External links

Campaign website
Living people 1940 births Mayors of Montpellier Socialist Party (France) politicians French anesthesiologists Women mayors of places in France 20th-century French physicians French women physicians 20th-century French women physicians 20th-century French women Women anesthesiologists {{France-politician-Socialist-stub