Laurent Lhardit

Lhardit is originally from the Marseille district of La Pointe-Rouge [fr]. He is a graduate of the Institut d'études politiques de Lyon.^[1]

Laurent Lhardit joined the Socialist Party in 1988, following the appointment of Michel Rocard to Matignon.^[1] He worked with the Socialist MP Michel Pezet, to whom he remained close.^[1] In 1997, he founded his consultancy firm.^[1]

He was elected district councilor for the 3rd sector of Marseille [fr] during the 2014 municipal elections [fr].^[2][3] In 2020 [fr], he was elected municipal councilor of Marseille on the Printemps Marseillais list.^[4] He became 16th deputy to the new mayor of Marseille, Michèle Rubirola, responsible for economic dynamism, employment and sustainable tourism.^[5][6] He retained his delegation when Benoît Payan succeeded Michèle Rubirola as mayor in December 2020.^[3]

For the 2024 legislative elections, Laurent Lhardit is the candidate of the New Popular Front in the Bouches-du-Rhône's 2nd constituency, which corresponds to the 7th and 8th arrondissements of Marseille. He came second in the first round with 28.49% of the vote, behind Olivier Rioult of the RN-RAD alliance (32.06%) but ahead of the outgoing Ensemble deputy Claire Pitollat (27.01%).^[7] The latter withdrew, giving her support to "Laurent Lhardit's candidacy [and his] humanist and respectable values". He was elected in the second round with more than 53% of the vote.^[7]

It was the first time that the Left won the constituency since the 1973 French legislative election. Laurent Lhardit believes that a change in the sociology of the 7th arrondissement is at work; he sees "new arrivals, rather young, voting more to the left and sensitive to ecology".^[8]

• List of deputies of the 17th National Assembly of France