Jacques Peyrat
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jacques Peyrat (born October 18, 1931 in Belfort) is a right-wing French politician and lawyer who has been mayor of Nice since 1995 and senator from the Alpes-Maritimes since 1998.
Jacques Peyrat came from a military family that settled in Nice in 1946 where he studied law and letters. In 1947 at the age of 16 he joined the RPF (Rassemblement du Peuple Français), the political party that General de Gaulle created that year.
In 1953 Peyrat enlisted in a parachute battalion of the French Foreign Legion. It was in French Indochina that he met and became friends with the far-right politician Jean-Marie Le Pen.
Upon his return to civilian life, Peyrat united his social and professional interests. His presidency of parachute and aeronautical groups won him a silver medal for youth and sports.
In 1962 Peyrat began his political career, at first as a member of the CNIP(National Centre of Independents and Peasants), and then in the breakaway Independent Republicans party of Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, as a Nice municipal councillor. At the same time, he practiced law with a speciality in penal law.
In 1973 Peyrat rejoined the Front National, Le Pen's far-right party, and was a Front National deputy from 1986 to 1988, general counsel of the Canton of Nice 14 from 1992 to 1998 and regional councillor.
In 1995 Jacques Peyrat left the Front National and was elected Mayor of Nice with the slogan "Divers droite" (figuratively, An Alternative Right). He was reelected in 2001.
In 1996 he rejoined the RPR. Since September 27, 1998 he has been senator first with then RPR, then with the center-right UMP (Union pour un Mouvement Populaire) from the Alpes-Maritimes. In 2002, Peyrat founded CANCA (La Communauté d'agglomération de Nice-Côte d'Azur) and became president of it.
He is also a member of the Superior Council of the Military Reserve (Conseil supérieur de la réserve militaire) and a member of the High Court of Justice (Haute Cour de Justice).
[edit] Source
- Entry to Jacques Peyrat in the French Wikipedia, translated from the French
- City of Nice official biographical sketch
Like his predecessor Jacques Medecin, Peyrat has been a controversial force in local politics in Nice, both dividing the local mainstream conservative right and outraging the local far left on a number of occasions. Much of the criticism aimed at him has surrounded his practicing a "politique de prestige" at the expense of the interests of the local people. Furthermore, and although nominally a member of the RPR (and later the UMP), he has also been both adept at the use of the coded language favoured by his former party the Front National, and also more than willing to play on the patriotism of the electorate in a similar way to the FN, notably on issues such as immigration and security. A more or less conservative reaction has been at the heart of much of his discourse, even after he joined the RPR: reaction against centralised power structures (including the Department and the Region); against political correctness and the radical left “liberal” media; against illegal immigrants and minority groups who don't assimilate more generally; and against “liberal” values and their manifestation in modern society. The fact that he has been able to do little to actively or "radically" change many of these things has not stopped him from railing against them in a way which has revealed his political origins and occasionally tended to overshadow and even undermine the proactive policy initiatives which have also been occasional features of his time in office.
