Millon also held the mayorship of his native town of Belley from 1977 to 2001 and presidency of the Regional Council of Rhône-Alpes from 1988 to 1999.

[1] As Defence Minister, Millon led the highly sensitive 1997 reform on the professionalisation of the French Armed Forces, which had been decided the year prior by President Jacques Chirac in order to abolish the military service.

In 1998, to retain the presidency of the regional council, Millon agreed on being elected with votes from Jean-Marie Le Pen's National Front (FN) and was subsequently expelled from the UDF.

He then created his own party, The Right (LD), aiming at federating French liberals and conservatives, which met limited success.

Having been defeated in his 2002 parliamentary run in Rhône, he was nominated in 2003 as France's ambassador to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in Rome, where he advocated for African development.