Louis Pradel

Louis Pradel (born December 15, 1906 in Lyon , † November 27, 1976 ibid) was a French politician and from 1957 to 1976 mayor of the city of Lyon.

Pradel followed in the office of Édouard Herriot , under which he had exercised the function of the City Councilor for Culture and Sports. While Herriot belonged politically to the center-left, Pradel was an independent close to the center-right. As such, Pradel prevailed against the Gaullist Maurice Herzog in the 1965 elections , by founding his own party with the initials PRADEL: “pour la réalisation active des espérances lyonnaises” (For the active realization of Lyon's hopes). The Pradel list won a majority in all arrondissements in the first ballot . As a result, Pradel no longer had any significant opponents on the bourgeois side in Lyon.

Pradel's field of activity, however, remained at the municipal level, at which he enjoyed great popularity for a long time , also thanks to the support of the daily Le Progrès de Lyon . In terms of professional training, Pradel was an expert in car insurance, so promoting car traffic, which is typical of the time, was at the center of his interests. Among other things, he pushed through the Paris-Marseille motorway through the center of Lyon, a decision that one of his successors, Michel Noir , described as the "stupidity of the century" ( connerie du siècle ). Pradel also campaigned for the construction of old people's homes and the redesign of the former La Part-Dieu barracks , as well as the construction of the Métro Lyon .

Pradel's plan to build an expressway through the old quarter of Vieux Lyon met with widespread opposition and in the early 1960s led to an amendment to the French monument protection law in line with the idea of ​​ensemble protection. For some, Pradel is still regarded today as a classic "demolisher" and "concreter". Pradel died of cancer shortly before his 70th birthday. Numerous institutions and traffic areas in Lyon are named after him.

publication

• Mon Lyon superb. Diffusion Rhône-Alpes du livre, 1976, ISBN 2-263-00085-2

literature

• Laurent Sauzay: Louis Pradel, maire de Lyon: voyage au cœur du pouvoir municipal. Ed. lyonnaises d'art et d'histoire, Lyon 1998, ISBN 2-84147-074-1

Web links

• Régis Neyret: You monument isolé au “tout patrimoine”. In: Géocarrefour, Vol. 79/3, 2004, pp. 231–237 (on the monument protection controversy around Vieux Lyon )