Formerly a journalist, politician and mayor of Toulouse, he had been a member of Liberal Democracy and later of the leading centre-right Union for a Popular Movement.

In 2001, Jacques Chirac appointed him president of the Conseil supérieur de l'audiovisuel (CSA), a post which he held until 2007, when Chirac appointed him president of the Arab World Institute.

[1] For the first time, the Presidential Majority (meaning all the parties gathered around Nicolas Sarkozy) scored four seats in the European Parliament, two more than the Socialist Party, French South-West's leading force.

In July 2009, he was elected vice-president of the Commission of Foreign Affairs of the European Parliament and in November 2009 he was named rapporteur on the Association Agreement with Syria.

Baudis was nominated by the prime minister to the new office of Defender of Rights, essentially an ombudsman role, and was appointed by the Council of State with effect from July 2011.