Pradel, Louis

Born in Lyon in the family of cafe owners. He graduated from technical college . From his youth, he is interested in politics, participates in election campaigns of the Radical Party and the long-term mayor of Lyon, Edouard Herriot . During the occupation of France participates in the resistance movement. In 1941, he was one of the creators of the Resistance Rooster group ( Fr. Le Coq enchaîné ). He extracts and hides in the homes of his relatives in the district of Lyon weapons for armed resistance to the Nazis ^{[1] [2]} .

After the liberation of the country, he was elected a municipal councilor and then re-elected several times to this position. Since 1953, enters the city government under the chairmanship of Edouard Herriot as deputy for arts and sports. After his death, Herriot stands for mayor and, to the surprise of many, wins the election. Later he was re-elected three times as mayor: in 1959, 1965 and 1971 ^[1] .

Particularly difficult for Louis Pradel was the 1965 election. According to the law of June 27, 1964, the gollist government of France changed the system of all elections in the country from proportional to majoritarian . According to this system (which exists to a significant degree to this day), it was not individual candidates who were to participate in the elections of the Mayor of Lyon in 1965, but electoral blocs. ^{[ clear ]} Victory was won by the bloc, which received an absolute majority of votes in the first or second round. Louis Pradel at that time was not a member of any party and at the same time refused to enter into an alliance with the Gaullists, who had nominated Maurice Erzog, Minister for Youth Affairs, to elect their candidate. Lyon was divided into 9 districts , each district had to have a separate list, and the leader of the list in one of the districts could not use his name as a “locomotive” in any other. As a result, the name of Louis Pradel, who was extremely popular in the city at that time, did not give much to his allies. The solution to the problem found by Pradel was this: he founded a new party especially for these elections, which he called the abbreviation PRADEL - Pour la Réalisation Active Des Espérances Lyonnaises (For the active realization of Lyon’s aspirations). As a result of this technology, the party of Pradel supporters was able to get a majority of votes already in the first round ^[3] .

Historically, the city of Lyon is closely surrounded by several other localities, such as Vilhorban , Va-en-Velen , Venissieux , Kaluir-e-Cuir, and others that are also part of three different departments - Rhône , En and Isere . In the 1960s, in many respects, these localities used a single transport system, unified communications, etc., but each commune was headed by its mayor with its communal council. Despite the presence of separate consultations on specific issues, there was no global coordination of activities at that time. Louis Pradel spoke and actively campaigned for the pooling of efforts and coordination of activities within a single governing body. As a result, on the basis of Law 66-1069 of December 31, 1966, the Urban Community of Lyon was created, and the next day, Louis Pradel was elected its first president ^[4] .

Pradel led the city until his death on November 27, 1976 ^[1] .

The time of the administration of Lyon Louis Pradel is the time of numerous realized (and not realized) large-scale construction projects. For the love of the giant construction works the mayor was called “Zizi Beton” ( fr. Zizi Béton ) ^[1] .

Among the Lyon construction projects of Louis Pradel, the following can be noted (the list is far from complete):

• The new “people's district” of La Duscher , the first line of which for 5,300 apartments (of which 80% is social housing), was built in 1958-1962 ^{[1] [5]} ;
• Lyon Palace of Congresses (1964) and the rose garden located next to it, which is part of the Tête d'Or park, in the opening of which Princess Monaco Grace took part ^[6] ;
• The building of the International Agency for Research on Cancer (September 1965) ^[1] ;
• The road tunnel under the Fourvier Hill, connecting the A6 and A7 motorways (1971) ^[7] and the Perrash interchange complex;
• Museum of the Gallo-Roman civilization (1975) ^[1] ;
• Part-Dieu business district, which includes office buildings, a shopping center, a railway station and a metro station ^[1] ;
• Lyon Metro (opened after the death of Louis Pradel, May 2, 1978) ^[8] .

Some of the objects built became symbols of Lyon. Others (first of all, the transport scheme, in which automobile, railway and urban, local and transit flows intersect in the city center) cause well-deserved criticism ^[7] . Among the projects that, fortunately, were not implemented were the almost complete demolition of the Old Lyon medieval quarter, envisaged by the Urban Renewal Project adopted in 1958 and stopped only thanks to the mass protests of citizens and the intervention of French Culture Minister Andre Malraux ^[9] . In 2011, Old Lyon was included in the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage List ^[10] .

The name of Louis Pradel is given to:

• Square , located near the building of the City Hall of Lyon;
• The metro station under this square;
• Home for veterans, located in the Lyon quarter of Croix-Russ ;
• Cardiology and Pneumology Hospital, located in Brone ;
• A sports center in Caluire-e-Cuire ;
• Elementary school in Chassieux .