Meet the Lidl supervisor who also runs a French village as mayor

By day, Laurine Gillot supervises checkouts at a Lidl supermarket. By evening, she is responsible for running her village.

The 30-year-old mother of two is mayor of Berviller-en-Moselle (Moselle), a commune of around 500 residents near the German border, balancing a full-time job, family life and the demands of local government.

“It is an important, interesting and very demanding role,” Ms Gillot said.

Although she estimates mayoral work takes up around eight hours a day, the job never really stops.

“The responsibilities do not disappear after 16:00; they are there all day and all night,” she said.

Ms Gillot was elected in 2023 after the resignation of the previous mayor. She said she felt compelled to step forward rather than see the commune potentially lose its independence.

“It was inconceivable to me that the village where I grew up should be merged with another municipality simply because there was no mayor.”

She credits a strong team of deputy mayors and councillors for helping her manage the workload and continue local projects.

Like many mayors in rural France, Ms Gillot combines public service with another profession. She works 35 hours a week as a checkout supervisor at Lidl before turning her attention to municipal affairs.

'People see it as a man's world'

Balancing those commitments would be impossible without family support, she said. Her partner and parents regularly help care for her children, while colleagues at the mairie step in when urgent issues arise during her working hours.

She has also learned the importance of delegating.

“I can always rely on my deputy mayors and my secretary to deal with urgent matters when I am at work,” she said.

One of the biggest challenges, she believes, is still being taken seriously as a young woman in politics: “Many people still see it as a man's world.”

Elected at just 27, Ms Gillot said she often encountered assumptions linked to both her age and gender.

“You have to assert yourself and prove that you belong there just as much as any man.”

She also highlighted the complexity of the administrative side of the role, which includes budgeting, accounting, urban planning and legal procedures.

In her view, elected officials should receive formal training because the responsibilities amount to a profession in themselves.

She praised her town hall secretary for helping her navigate the bureaucracy and understand procedures.

The experience reflects a broader shift taking place in rural France, where a small but growing number of young women are taking on mayoral roles traditionally dominated by older men.

One example is Emilie Cessin, 36, mayor of Gellin in Doubs, near the Swiss border, who is also raising a young child while managing the daily responsibilities of her commune.

According to figures from France's 2020 municipal elections, just 41 women under the age of 30 were elected as mayors out of more than 34,000 mayors nationwide, highlighting how rare young female leaders were in local government.

However, the gender parity picture is slowly improving after new rules introduced for the municipal elections in March stipulate that all electoral lists must now contain an equal number of male and female candidates.

In communes with fewer than 1,000 residents, this reform has had an impact. Women now hold 52% of seats on municipal councils, up from 37% in 2020.

Nearly a quarter of France’s mayors are women

While the average age of mayors in France remains stable, the number of female mayors continues to rise, analysis of the municipal elections in March shows.

According to the interior ministry’s national directory of elected officials, nearly a quarter (23.5%) of mayors are now women. There are 1,000 more than in 2020 (when there were already 1,000 more female mayors than in 2014). In 2008, less than 14% of mayors were women.

However, the average age of mayors at the time of their election has remained stable compared to 2020, at 59 years old (58.9 in 2020). Female mayors are slightly younger than male mayors (57.1 years, compared to 59.5 years for men).