He became first vice-president of the Agglomeration community of Caen la Mer.
In the 2002 legislative election, he defeated the Socialist incumbent in the Calvados's 2nd constituency as a Union for French Democracy (UDF) candidate.
He was politically close to Jean-Louis Borloo, but also a close supporter of UDF leader François Bayrou.
However, he supported Nicolas Sarkozy in the second round of the 2007 presidential election and ran for re-election supported by the Presidential Majority and Bayrou's new party, the MoDem.
He was re-elected Mayor with over 53% of the votes by the first round, and won his cantonal race in Caen-6 in the runoff.
In 2009, he was selected to be the MoDem's candidate in Lower Normandy for the 2010 regional elections.