He represented the Nord department,[1] from 2002 to 2017[2] and is a member of Arise the Republic, a small Gaullist party led by Nicolas Dupont-Aignan.

[12] With the redistribution of France's armed forces having led to the closure of the 103 Cambrai-Épinoy air base, he obtained government approval for the entire arrondissement to be classified as a revitalization zone (tax assistance for business start-ups) and for the Ministry of Defense's accounting and financial analysis center to be set up in Cambrai.

Accompanied by Guy Bricout, mayor of Caudry, François-Xavier Villain presented an initial project in 2012 to convert the air base into a Mobilopolis mobility theme park.

His "Union pour Cambrai" list was elected with 72.5% of the vote in the first round, winning a majority of 35 seats out of 39 on the municipal council, enabling him to be re-elected mayor on 29 March 2014.

[22][23] On 15 July he ran for the presidency of the CAC, winning by a narrow margin over dissident Marjorie Gosselet (48 votes to 44).

[26] On 7 September 2022 he announced that he was temporarily withdrawing from Cambrai town council affairs for health reasons, with his first deputy acting as interim mayor.

He joined forces with Guy Bricout, mayor of Caudry, the second largest town in the eighteenth Nord constituency, with whom he won the 2002[28] and 2007[29] legislative elections.