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Karim Benzema doesn’t often involve himself in French politics. At the end of January, though, the striker gave a glowing endorsement of Jean-Michel Aulas, the former Lyon president who is leading the city’s mayoral race.
“He has everything it takes to do well,” Benzema said in a video played on the news channel LCI as Aulas was being interviewed. “He’s someone who people listen to, he knows where he wants to go and he has a lot of experience,” the former Real Madrid player added. The Lyon-born striker was later joined by Bafétimbi Gomis in showing support for their former boss.
“This is not the candidacy of a party, but that of a Lyonnais,” Aulas announced when he launched his campaign in September. The 76-year-old is looking to oust Grégory Doucet, the Green mayor who was elected six years ago and is leading a left-wing coalition. As Sunday’s first round approaches, the challenger has been consistently leading in the polls, on about 40%. A second round will follow a week later if none of the four main candidates get 50% of the vote.
Although Aulas claims to be above party politics, a “civil society” candidate in his own words, he has worked to secure the backing of several opposition parties. His team consists of a coalition ranging from the Renaissance party of France’s presdent, Emmanuel Macron, to the right-wing Les Républicains.
Aulas spent 36 years at Lyon until 2023, during which the club rose from the second division to win seven consecutive titles, and remains an important figure in French football. He is the vice-president of the French football federation (FFF) and president of the national women’s football league, roles which have led to concerns being raised over potential conflicts of interest.
Recently, Aulas was made to row back on a campaign promise to build a stadium in Lyon’s La Duchère neighbourhood for the local fifth-tier club. The FFF’s ethics committee had stepped in to remind him he was to “refrain from making any campaign promises linked to football”, as it had decreed back in September.
“A campaign should be dignified and respect the rules,” says Gautier Chapuis, one of the deputy mayors up for re-election. The 38-year-old is one of several local politicians taking on the man who led their football team to unprecedented success at the turn of the century. “He was a great club president, but now he’s a right-wing candidate with right-wing ideas,” Chapuis says. “As a left-wing Green politician, that’s what I fight against.”
Chapuis is also critical of endorsements from former players. “What matters to people is finding housing, getting healthcare and being able to feel safe in the city,” he says. “The respect we have for those players shouldn’t hide the fact that he’s put forward nothing of substance, just plans for new tunnels and stadiums.”
“He’s a Lyon institution,” counters Pierre Oliver, the Républicains’ mayor of Lyon’s second arrondissement (district) and one of Aulas’s running mates. “He made the city shine through Olympique Lyonnais and Cegid,” the right-wing politician says, referencing the software company Aulas founded before moving into football. “Who better to represent that hope for change in Lyon?”
Oliver adds: “I’ve seen people involve themselves in the campaign because they’re Lyon fans. They consider him to be their president, and they see it as their duty to help him. It’s surprising to see for those of us who have been in politics for longer, but we’ve been reaching people we wouldn’t have been able to otherwise.”
A proposed new metro line, which would serve an indoor arena owned by Aulas’s family investment firm, Holnest, has also drawn accusations of a conflict of interest. “I understand that some opponents want to create suspicion, but he transferred all of his professional activities to his son,” says Oliver. “What they forget to mention is that the project would be to link the town centre to the airport.”
Aulas’s Coeur Lyonnais (Lyonnais Heart) manifesto is decidedly light on sports-related promises. “His whole political capital is based around his success in football, so there’s no need for him to overdo it,” says Romain Meltz, a political science professor at the Lumière University Lyon 2.
“It’s now a centre-right to right-wing campaign, but initially he was also looking to get some centre-left support. The arrival of [the regional president and Les Républicains figure] Laurent Wauquiez shifted the coalition to the right early on and made that impossible.”
Paul Bacot, a political scientist at the higher-education institution ENS Lyon, says: “Some might see it as Aulas looking for something to do in retirement, or one last trophy to add to his cabinet. Everyone knows that he’s the former club president; that’s a given. What he does keep reminding people of, though, is that he’s an entrepreneur. The implication is that, as an entrepreneur, he would be better at managing the city than the politicians.”
The killing in mid-February of the far-right activist Quentin Deranque, for which several reported members of a banned far-left collective are being investigated, has also become a major talking point of the campaign, not least because he died after a violent street confrontation in Lyon. Aulas had called for Deranque’s portrait to be displayed at the city hall, arguing Lyon should “pay tribute to one of its sons” and “express its absolute rejection of violence and hatred”. Doucet declined to do so, criticising Aulas for his “indecent political appropriation” of the killing.
In a televised debate between the main candidates, the former club president was also pressed on accusations that he tolerated the presence of violent and fascist individuals in Lyon’s “ultra” groups at matches, which he denied. “During my years as president of Olympique Lyonnais, I have always condemned violence and excesses in the strongest possible terms,” he added the following day.
In a separate statement, he admitted to struggling in the BFMTV debate, arguing that the exercise was new to him as someone who “doesn’t come from the world of politics”. Aulas went on to skip the next debate and was accused the following day of “empty-chair politics” by Doucet, who was speaking to local media on his way to playing football with political allies. As the campaign enters its final stretch, it’s the political novice who nevertheless remains the favourite to take the town hall.
