Caroline Cayeux
Caroline Cayeux (born 1 November 1948) is a French politician and Mayor of Beauvais. She is a member of the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP). She became Departmental President of the Rally for the Republic in 1998, after the incumbent, Jean-François Mancel was forced to resign for entering into an electoral and political alliance with the far-right FN. She defeated the incumbent Socialist Mayor of Beauvais Walter Amsallem in the 2001 election and was re-elected with 58% in 2008 against Sylvie Houssin of the PS. She was defeated as a RPR dissident candidate in  the 2002 French legislative election and as a candidate on the UMP list in the 2004 Senate election. She became regional councilor of Picardy in 2004, on the UMP-UDF list of Gilles de Robien. She was the only candidate for the UMP nomination in Picardy for the 2010 regional elections and will thus be the UMP's top candidate. In 2018 Cayeux made international news playing an April Fools' Day prank via social media, claiming that furniture giant Ikea would be bringing 4,000 new jobs to Beauvais; the prank was not well received across social media.