During the Trente Glorieuses, several large French cities were governed and represented by 'leaders' such as Jacques Chaban-Delmas in Bordeaux, Georges Frêche in Montpellier or Pierre Mauroy in Lille. The power of these personalities was based, of course, on their personal charisma, but also on their capacity to be both strongly inserted in society and local networks and able to represent the interests of their city on a national scale, based on national mandates, sometimes of the highest order. The gradual construction of the French inter-municipal system has also, at least initially, strengthened their power, by allowing them to position themselves as 'unifiers' on subjects that are rather consensual at the local level, such as the reclamation of industrial wastelands through urban projects or outreach policies.
