He will be the mayor of Sète within a handful of days. Hervé Marquès, hitherto assistant to sports, will take on a new costume. One more, for this committed man, with already full life.
In a handful of days, the majority of the municipal council will entrust him with the reins of the city. Hervé Marquès, hitherto deputy sports assistant to the Fourth Mandate Commeinhes, will be the new mayor of Sète for the next ten months, until March 2026, the date of the next municipal elections.
A trajectory that the kid from the HLM city of the Vallon could never have imagined, even in his wildest dreams. Born September 13, 1969, the Sétois grew up at the foot of B2 building on rue Robespierre. A popular neighborhood, which he still speaks with emotion and the memory of “Real Sétoise life”. He made his classes in Condorcet, then at the Lakanal school, before leaving for the benches of the college and the Lycée Paul-Valéry.
Military career in Lebanon, Kosovo, Qatar …
His majority led him to embrace a military career. For fifteen years, Hervé Marquès was a gendarmerie non-commissioned officer assigned to external operations. He goes on a mission to Lebanon, Kosovo or even Qatar … of these experiences alongside organizations such as UN and NATO, on the border between the military and the humanitarian, he says he kept “A particular affection for peoples who suffer”. But the army has also forged the man he is today. Deemed honest, committed and law, he is described by those around him as an individual “Warm but firm”, “which does not hold back his outspokenness”.
“He respects the rules, has the meaning of values and the collective spirit”
An education, a character and a sense of commitment that Hervé Marquès knows “Inherited from rugby”sport he practiced for many years, leading him to supervise, then preside over the AS Poussan rugby club. “He knows the rules, respects them, has the meaning of values and the collective spirit, confides one of his collaborators to the city of Sète. He carries things and assumes them. He is also a man in the field. “
-A final personality trait which he was able to demonstrate in five years of mandate as assistant sports delegate. Hervé Marquès, married and father of two children aged 19 and 22, forged the image of an elected official involved, that the Sétois crossed in the stands of rugby, water polo or even basketball.
“Key” meeting with François Commeinhes
Politics is however a universe that he discovered late. At the end of his military career, on his return to France, he notably turned to entrepreneurship and joined the management of Village Center, an outdoor hotel group located in the South of France. It was his meeting with François Commeinhes, in 2020, who made him “switch”.
With the former mayor, it was enough for a discussion around a coffee so that Hervé Marquès was convinced by the man, in whom he found “Benchmarks and the same sense of the collective and the general interest”. The assistant is also considered a faithful of François Commeinhes. Proximity, perhaps even a parentage, which it is not hidden. “Hervé Marquès is a loyal one, in whom Fran1cois Commonhes has placed its confidence”we observe on the side of the town hall.
It remains to be seen whether Hervé Marquès will be in his line line, or will gradually be able to emancipate it. “I want to put myself in working order”he simply explains, when approaching the city mayor of the city for the first time.
