Jean-Claude Gaudin, at home on March 31, 2021, the day of the release of his memoirs – Laurent Chamussy / SIPA for 20 Minutes
- The former mayor of Marseille Jean-Claude Gaudin is publishing his memoirs this Wednesday with Albin Michel editions.
- In this book, Jean-Claude Gaudin tries to rehabilitate his political record after a quarter of a century at the head of the second largest city in France.
- In an interview with 20 minutes, the former mayor looks back on his political career, in particular the rue d’Aubagne.
In a small street in the quiet district of Mazargues, south of Marseille, Jean-Claude Gaudin is waiting, seated in his chair. The door of the family home in which the political animal has lived all his life is ajar, and proudly reveals the photos of the last municipal council he chaired. As if to better remind us that the time has come for the former mayor of Marseille, who remained at the head of the city for a quarter of a century, to write history, at the dawn of his 82 years.
In his memories, Now I’ll tell you all about it, published this Wednesday by Albin Michel editions, Jean-Claude Gaudin has decided to “clear all accounts”, as he confides to 20 minutes, on this exceptionally long and eventful political life. And in the process tries to rehabilitate its balance sheet criticized from all sides …
During your last vows to the press, you who have devoted your entire life to politics, you feared a shock once your functions left. What is it?
It has been a year since I left all responsibilities and I am coping with this separation better than I had expected. But sometimes I wake up all of a sudden at night thinking I’m still the mayor!
Why did you decide not to represent yourself in 2020?
I am now approaching my 82th birthday. I am not going to remain mayor of Marseille all my life. It’s age, it’s the evolution of things. Today, there is a whole team of men and women, young, who engage in political life, who work with computers, with the Internet, with all kinds of things that have not been given to me. when I was young and got involved in politics.
You hesitated to represent yourself in 2014. Wasn’t that the “excess mandate”, as Renaud Muselier said?
The Marseillais decide it, not X or Y. The Marseillais in 2014 gave me my best electoral victory. Of course not, it was not the mandate too many. We always talk about schools, rue d’Aubagne, but we don’t talk about all that was good and all that I was able to do.
This last mandate was indeed punctuated by controversy. Did that influence your decision to stop everything?
It is not the controversies. It is the drama of the rue d’Aubagne that effectively tarnished the end of my mandate in 2014. The collapse of two buildings resulted in the death of eight people whom I think of very regularly. It raised a controversy over unsanitary housing in the old city centers.
In your book, you write that you would have been made, wrongly, “to bear the moral, if not criminal, responsibility for the rue d’Aubagne”. Why ?
When there is a fire on rue de Trévise in Paris which results in the death of four people, is Madame Hidalgo responsible?
The question is different here, because we are talking about municipal jurisdiction, peril decrees …
(He cuts) We’re talking about a private condominium, 85, which experts say today was the one that collapsed first. Next to it, there was a building, number 83, which belonged to Marseille Habitat, which was empty, walled up, since it had taken this institution ten years to remove the tenants who were there. Period.
But the city was slow to respond to the reports on the danger posed by these buildings …
Not at all. Experts had come to 85 and we followed the recommendations of the experts. Everything has always been observed. There is a kind of legend. The competent assistant, Mr. Ruas, always checked everything and took the necessary peril orders.
He has since been indicted. So are you confident in the future for him?
But of course!
Speaking of your former team, you say of Bruno Gilles, former sector mayor and president of the LR departmental federation, that he was a “clientelist to the point of caricature” mayor …
(He cuts) Absolutely!
What does it mean ?
It means he was very attentive. Nothing that was happening in the 4th and 5th arrondissements escaped him. He was very insistent on hiring at the Town Hall or the AP-HM people he knew. This is what you commonly call patronage. Who hasn’t done it, patronage?
Have you made any?
Of course ! Everyone did. Me, it is the inhabitants of Mazargues who came to talk to me about their children. And when their children had a substantial education, I always tried to help them find a job. I have not always succeeded. But I did.
Do you understand that this can be shocking?
No, it shouldn’t be shocking. Why would that be shocking? The chosen one is at the service of all. If someone comes to ask something to an elected representative, the elected tries to give satisfaction if it corresponds, of course, to the rules and the laws of our country.
You were recently targeted by a PNF investigation. How did you experience it?
I had to wait 82 years for the gendarmes and two judges to ring at my door in the morning. As soon as they came, I told them, “You are home. They fired the files as they went. They were very interested in my libraries. And after about two hours, I said to them, “If it’s my municipal archives you want to see, they are in my garage.” Everything was well packed. They took some files. They also went to my country house in Saint-Zacharie. They only saw the libraries and tapes of Game of Thrones, the Tintin and Snowy of creation. Fortunately, they haven’t stumbled upon porn reviews too much. I still had a few but they didn’t see them!
What do you think he wanted to know?
If there were fictitious jobs in the city of Marseille. There is no fictitious job in the city of Marseille and there never has been. But in my mayor’s office, I kept five people who were over 70 years old. It is called in journalistic terms embezzlement of public funds, concealment, breach of trust… These five people have always worked, and even a lot!
How did you experience your custody?
Well, she was traditional. You are told to arrive at 8:30 am Two gendarmes tell me: “We are going to ask you 120 questions. There is something for the whole day ”. I ask if we can start. “Oh no, as long as the doctor doesn’t come and take your blood pressure, we won’t start! “. A very nice young doctor arrives at ten o’clock. Meanwhile, we wait in the office. Afterwards, at 1:30 p.m., the gendarmes tell me that they are going to lunch and that I can ask for a sandwich. What I do ! They put me in an office next door, and I don’t know if the gendarme is there to watch me or to keep me company. In any case, he told me straight away: “You know, my dad was an RPR deputy for Meaux! (Laughs). At 3 p.m., I start to ask if we can’t start the audition again. We start again and it lasts until 20 hours.
But did you understand that you are being placed in police custody?
I believe it is natural. It’s part of the procedure of the new financial prosecutor, that’s all.
Throughout this book, you defend your record. What would you like people to take away from your political life?
I regret absolutely nothing. I hope it will be remembered that I developed Marseille, that I prevented industries like Haribo from leaving the city. I transformed this city into a tourist city. I hope that, one day, people will not only talk to me about schools and the rue d’Aubagne.