French rugby great Serge Blanco won the mayoral election in Biarritz on Sunday, marking a successful entry into politics in the southwestern seaside town where he built his sporting career.
Blanco, 67, a former full-back for France and Biarritz Olympique, took 41.92% of the vote in a three-way second-round contest, ahead of incumbent Mayor Maider Arosteguy with 32.21% and a joint left-wing and centrist list led by Ana Ezcurra with 25.87%, according to final results.
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Dubbed the “Pelé of rugby”, Blanco edged out Arosteguy by just 12 votes in the first round and secured additional backing between rounds from Jean-Baptiste Dussaussois-Larralde, a member of the outgoing opposition who had placed fourth with 13.11%.
After announcing the results to cheers from Blanco’s supporters, Arosteguy said she felt "disappointment" and a "feeling of having given everything" and predicted "an extremely difficult term".
Blanco said "the people of Biarritz wanted change", adding they wanted "to be spoken to from the heart" and "to be respected".
'A one-club man'
Running for the first time in the affluent town of around 25,000 people that traditionally leans centre-right, Blanco united political figures from the centre-left of the right.
Born in Caracas in 1958, Blanco moved to Biarritz at the age of 2 with his mother after the death of his Venezuelan father. He discovered rugby there and spent his entire club career at Biarritz Olympique, reaching the French championship final in 1992, where they lost 19-14 to Toulon in his final match.
"I have only ever worn the colours of BO and that is my pride. I am a one-club man," he said in his 2019 autobiography.
More than 90 'caps'
Unlucky at club level, Serge Blanco built his legend with the national team, making 93 appearances ("caps"), leading as captain 18 times and scoring 38 tries, a record only surpassed by Damian Penaud (40) in November 2025.
Playing under the number 15, he electrified defences with a bewildering sidestep and a blistering run. During his try against Australia in 1987, which sent France into the final of the very first World Cup, he dived into the corner in the 85th minute chased by four Wallabies, and then celebrated, on his knees, the ball held above his head.
Although the French national team was beaten in the final by New Zealand, he won six Five Nations tournaments, including two Grand Slams (in 1981 and 1987), during the 1980s.
He left the national team after a bitter defeat, punctuated by blows, in the quarter-finals of the 1991 World Cup against England, which had "targeted" him to derail France.
From French rugby star to entrepreneur
After starting out as a lathe operator, fitter and assembler at French defence contractor Dassault alongside his then amateur rugby career before joining the public relations department of the Pernod group, he took over a thalassotherapy (seawater spa treatment) centre bearing his name in Hendaye, near Biarritz, even before hanging up his cleats.
He also created a successful clothing brand in 1993 and moved into the hotel sector, with a luxury establishment not far from Biarritz airport. But the venture ended badly. In January 2020, after several years of losses, the Serge Blanco holding company, bringing together the hotel and thalassotherapy businesses, went into liquidation.
As the first head of the newly created National Rugby League from 1998 to 2008, he also served as president of Biarritz Olympique from 1995 to 1998, then again from 2008 to 2015. Vice-president to Pierre Camou at the French Rugby Federation (FFR) from 2012 to 2016, he later went against Camou's successors Bernard Laporte and then Florian Grill.
But he generally remained on the sidelines of political life until his decision in early December to run for mayor, to "give Biarritz back the momentum it deserves".
(FRANCE 24 with AFP)
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