Jean-Michel Aulas recasts Lyon mayoral defeat, says power now lies at the Métropole | OneFootball

Former OL president Jean-Michel Aulas has cast his narrow March mayoral loss as anything but, pointing instead to his elevation as first vice-president of the powerful Métropole de Lyon, with innovation and major projects in his brief.

According to L'Équipe, the Grand Coeur Lyonnais and rightwing coalition seized the Métropole, previously led by ecologist Bruno Bernard, installing Véronique Sarselli of LR as president. Aulas says the bloc took 10 of 14 constituencies and that the Métropole, with a 4 billion euros budget, is where power lies.

Grégory Doucet retained city hall on 22 March with 50.67% after winning LFI support between rounds, while Aulas finished on 49.33% and filed challenges. He frames it as a non-take of the city rather than a defeat.

Inside his camp, one participant later described a slide from unwinnable to unloseable, citing overconfidence, poor explanation and thematic drift. A running mate declined to assess what they called a half failure at city hall and half success at the Métropole.

He brushed off talk of wounded pride and shunned further debates after an unconvincing late-February BFM appearance, arguing TV jousts served journalists and that his outings draw clicks.

He plans to prioritise a 7.6km Tassin to Saint-Fons tunnel to ease Fourvière, a cost-uncertain idea backed with Sarselli, and says he hopes to deliver it.

As council elder on 27 March, he handed Doucet the sash and vowed to lead opposition in city hall. He later backtracked on urging a public portrait of far-right activist Quentin Deranque, who died on 14 February after being beaten, saying he would not have asked had he known of Deranque’s racist posts.

Source: L'Équipe