France’s Green Party leader Marine Tondelier has accused Jean-Michel Aulas, a former football club president turned politician, of copying US President Donald Trump’s tactics after Aulus overtook the incumbent Greens’ mayor in the race for Lyon.
In an interview yesterday, Tondelier portrayed Aulas as someone moving from business to politics, driven by ego and a desire for personal power.
“Aulas, the former president of the Lyon football club, is a bit like Trump. He’s saying to himself, ‘Business was fun, now I want power.’
“He’s throwing himself into this adventure, gun in hand, saying some absolutely astonishing things. He said that if he were mayor, there would be no mayor’s office anymore. Advisers are useless to him, since he considers himself so brilliant.
“The money that used to pay the mayor’s team, he says, would be given to associations instead,” Tondolier said.
“That makes no sense! It’s a decoy, it’s really Trumpism coming to France.”
She then criticised Aulas’ supporters.
“When I see his supporters, I can only think their thirst for revenge is driving them to do things that are both irresponsible and senseless,” Tondelier said.
“Aulas is an independent candidate, but he is supported by Édouard Philippe, president of the centrist Horizons party; Laurent Wauquiez, leader of the Républicains and president of the region where Lyon sits; and Gabriel Attal, who now leads [French President Emmanuel] Macron’s party.
“I absolutely do not want Aulas to become mayor. It scares me,” Tondolier concluded.
According to the latest polls, Aulas is ahead with 47 per cent in the first round, far outpacing the incumbent Greens mayor, Grégory Doucet, at 23 per cent, and the left-wing candidate MP Anaïs Belouassa-Cherifi at 15 per cent.
By describing Aulas as a businessman entering politics with a populist, Trump-style approach, supported by prominent establishment figures, Tondelier sparked backlash. Critics accused the Greens of “panicking” as their hold on France’s second-largest city is diminishing.
Some local officials accused Tondelier of hypocrisy, arguing that the Greens had celebrated Doucet’s move from civil society into politics in 2020, yet now denounce Aulas for doing the same.
Sarah Peillon, a centre-right councillor from Lyon’s 7th arrondissement, said: “When Grégory Doucet entered politics in 2020, that was hailed as civil society stepping up, but when it’s Aulas, a man who’s helped Lyon shine for decades, suddenly it’s scandalous?
“And making people believe that a city of half a million residents can’t function without the mayor’s office — isn’t that fake news? Maybe drop the caricatures before crying ‘Trumpism’,” she added.
A former president of French football club Olympique Lyonnais has announced his candidacy for mayor of Lyon in 2026. https://t.co/0CNMOx3QP3
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) September 26, 2025
