Serge Blanco, French rugby icon and former businessman, announces his candidacy for Biarritz mayor in the 2026 municipal elections. Running without party affiliation, the 67-year-old local faces six other lists in a race where rugby remains influential. His campaign headquarters is set up in a neighborhood grocery-bar.
Serge Blanco, 67, has entered politics by running for mayor of Biarritz in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department. A legendary rugby fullback, he played for Biarritz Olympique from 1975 to 1992, without winning a French championship for the club, but achieving notable success with the French national team.
Born in Caracas to a Venezuelan policeman father who died before he was two and a Basque mother, Odile Blanco, he grew up in Saint-Martin, a city-entry neighborhood. Loyal to Biarritz, he recalls starting with football on a local field at 14 but never leaving his mother for a trial in Nantes. “I started with football on that field opposite, he says. I was supposed to try out in Nantes. I was 14... I never went. Impossible to leave my mom.”
Post-rugby, Blanco rode the sport's social ladder. Friend and mentee of Serge Kampf, Capgemini's founder, he advanced from adjuster at Dassault to successful entrepreneur. He established a thalassotherapy center in Hendaye and launched a clothing brand, keeping his name prominent.
A political novice, he campaigns without party label from the grocery-bar of local septuagenarian Dominique Hirigoyen, reopened after three years. This spot serves as a lively base for his mayoral bid against six rivals, in a town steeped in rugby culture.