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Christian Estrosi

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Christian Estrosi
Mayor of Nice
Incumbent
Assumed office
15 May 2017
Preceded byPhilippe Pradal
In office
21 March 2008 – 13 June 2016
Preceded byJacques Peyrat
Succeeded byPhilippe Pradal
President of the Regional Council
of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur
In office
18 December 2015 – 8 May 2017
Preceded byMichel Vauzelle
Succeeded byRenaud Muselier
Deputy Minister of Industry
In office
23 June 2009 – 13 November 2010
Prime MinisterFrançois Fillon
Preceded byOffice created
Succeeded byÉric Besson
Secretary of State for the Overseas
In office
19 June 2007 – 17 March 2008
Prime MinisterFrançois Fillon
Preceded byHervé Mariton
Succeeded byYves Jégo
Deputy Minister of Spatial Planning
In office
2 June 2005 – 15 May 2007
Prime MinisterDominique de Villepin
Preceded byFrédéric de Saint-Sernin
Succeeded byHubert Falco
President of the General Council
of Alpes-Maritimes
In office
18 September 2003 – 14 December 2008
Preceded byCharles Ange Ginésy
Succeeded byÉric Ciotti
Personal details
Born
Christian Paul Gilbert Estrosi

(1955-07-01) 1 July 1955 (age 69)
Nice, France
Political partyHorizons (2021–present)
Other political
affiliations		Rally for the Republic (1988–2002)
Union for a Popular Movement (2002–2015)
The Republicans (2015–2021)
Spouse(s)Dominique Estrosi Sassone (1995–2016)
Laura Tenoudji (2016–present)
Children3
ProfessionMotorcyclist, politician
Signature
Christian Estrosi
NationalityFrench
Motorcycle racing career statistics
Grand Prix motorcycle racing
Active years1976–1983
First race1976 500cc Finnish Grand Prix
Last race1983 250cc Swedish Grand Prix
Starts Wins Podiums Poles F. laps Points
31 0 0 1 0

Christian Paul Gilbert Estrosi (born 1 July 1955) is a French sportsman and politician and the Mayor of Nice since 2017, previously holding the office from 2008 to 2016. A former professional motorcyclist, he served as a government minister under Presidents Jacques Chirac and Nicolas Sarkozy. Estrosi also served as President of the Regional Council of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur from 2015 to 2017 and First Deputy Mayor of Nice from 2016 until 2017. He is a former member of The Republicans, which he left in 2021 to join Horizons.

Early life

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Estrosi was born on 1 July 1955 in Nice.[1][2] His grandparents were immigrants from Italy.[1]

Motorcycle racing

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Image of a sports card for Christian Entrosi, Panini Moto Sport 1979, #35
Christian Entrosi, Panini Moto Sport 1979, #35

Estrosi was a professional motorcycle racer and competed at the world championship level in Grand Prix motorcycle racing from 1976 to 1983.[3] He won the French round of the 1976 Formula 750 season at the Circuit Paul Armagnac.[4] He also had a fourth-place finish in the 1978 500cc French Grand Prix.[3] He repeated this result in 1979 with a fourth place at the 1979 250cc Spanish Grand Prix.[3] He received the Youth and Sports gold medal.

Political career

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Early beginnings

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Estrosi was a member of the municipal council of Nice from 1983 to 1990, when he resigned.[1]

Career in national politics

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Estrosi served as a member of the National Assembly of France for the 5th constituency of Alpes-Maritimes from 1988 to 1993, then from 1997 to 2005, from 2008 to 2009, then from 2010 to 2016.[1] In 1993, he briefly served as the MP for the department's 2nd constituency but his election was ruled invalid. In Parliament, he served on the Committee on Cultural Affairs (1998–1993, 1996–2002), the Committee on Finance (2012–2016) and the Committee on Legal Affairs (2002–2005, 2008–2012).[5]

In addition, Estrosi held several ministerial positions in the national government in Paris.[1] He was appointed on 2 June 2005 as Deputy Minister of Spatial Planning in the government of Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, serving under Minister of the Interior Nicolas Sarkozy.[1] He was then appointed on 19 June 2007 as Secretary of State for the Overseas French territories (DOM-TOM), this time serving under Michèle Alliot-Marie.[1] From 2009 to 2010, he served as Deputy Minister of Industry.[1] During his time in office, he was widely seen as a close ally of Sarkozy.[6]

Career in municipal politics

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Estrosi was a regional councillor of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur from 1992 to 2002 and served as a regional council vice president from 1992 to 1998 under the presidency of Jean-Claude Gaudin.[1] He later served as one of the vice presidents of the General Council of Alpes-Maritimes from 2001 to 2003 and as its president from 2003 to 2008.[1] He was first elected a general councillor in the canton of Nice-8 in 1985.

Estrosi was reelected to the municipal council of Nice in the 2008 election, when he was also elected Mayor of Nice.[1] In addition, he has served as president of the Urban community of Nice Côte d'Azur from 2008 and president of Métropole Nice Côte d'Azur since 2012. In 2013, he rejected a plan to build a mosque funded by a businessman from Saudi Arabia in Nice.[7]

As part of a reorganization of the Union for a Popular Movement (later Republicans) leadership under their chairman Jean-François Copé in January 2013, Estrosi became – alongside Henri de Raincourt, Jean-Claude Gaudin, Brice Hortefeux, Roger Karoutchi and Gérard Longuet – one of the party's six vice-presidents.[8] Ahead of the UMP's leadership election in 2014, he led a group supporting Nicolas Sarkozy as the party's leader.[9]

In The Republicans' 2016 primary, Estrosi also endorsed Sarkozy as the party's candidate for the 2017 presidential election.[10] Ten months ahead of the election, he and other local conservatives aggressively criticised Socialist Minister of the Interior Bernard Cazeneuve for the lack of strength of the National Police force presence on the night the 2016 Nice truck attack.[11] Amid the Fillon affair, in March 2017, Estrosi joined Xavier Bertrand, Valérie Pécresse and others in calling for Alain Juppé to replace François Fillon as the party's candidate.[12][13] Also, he met with Emmanuel Macron during his campaign.[14]

On 8 May 2017, the day after the second round of the presidential election, Estrosi announced his resignation from the presidency of the Regional Council of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur to become Mayor of Nice again, succeeding his former first deputy, Philippe Pradal.[15] Estrosi is still managing the region as one of Regional Council President Renaud Muselier's vice presidents.

Overseeing the local authorities' response to the COVID-19 pandemic in France, Estrosi called in early 2021 for a weekend lockdown in the area to reduce the flow of tourists; at the time, Nice had a level of COVID-19 infections triple the national rate.[16]

In 2021, Estrosi left The Republicans to join Édouard Philippe's Horizons party, after Toulon Mayor Hubert Falco. Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Regional Council President Renaud Muselier also left The Republicans that year, marking a loss of elected officials in the area for the party. L'Obs nicknamed the three politicians the "infernal trio of the Provençal right".[17]

Other activities

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Political positions

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Estrosi was among conservative politicians in France who backed calls for a ban on the body-covering burkini swimsuit that some Muslim women wear on the beach, which was later invalidated by French courts.[14] In 2016, he threatened to sue people who distributed photographs of an incident in which Nice police ordered a Muslim woman to remove her burkini, saying that circulating the photographs would "provoke defamatory remarks and threats against police agents".[19][20]

In 2017, Estrosi distanced himself from his earlier decision to vote in favour of an unsuccessful 1988 bill on the reinstatement of the death penalty.[21]

Recognition

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Estrosi is the recipient of a Doctorate Honoris Causa from the University of Haifa in Israel. He is a Knight of the Legion of Honour from the French Republic, an Officer of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland, and a Commander of the Order of Saint-Charles from Monaco.

Controversy

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In 2017, Estrosi filed a defamation suit against Marine Le Pen for accusing him of being in league with Islamist militants; as a consequence, the European Parliament lifted Le Pen's immunity from prosecution.[22]

Personal life

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Estrosi was married to Dominique Sassone, daughter of Jean Sassone (1931–2006), who served as Deputy Mayor of Nice from 1977 to 1998.[23][24]

Early on during the COVID-19 pandemic in France, Estrosi tested positive for the SARS-CoV-2 virus.[25]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k "Official website biography". Archived from the original on 2013-08-15. Retrieved 2013-11-19.
  2. ^ National Assembly webpage
  3. ^ a b c "Rider Statistics - Christian Estrosi". MotoGP.com. Archived from the original on 2015-12-22. Retrieved 2015-12-19.
  4. ^ "1976 Formula 750 final standings". Racingmemo.free.fr. Retrieved 2023-03-19.
  5. ^ Christian Estrosi, French National Assembly.
  6. ^ Hugh Carnegy (29 February 2012), Politics: Sarkozy confident of support in the south Financial Times.
  7. ^ Paul Barelli, "Mosquée à Nice : l'équilibrisme électoral de M. Estrosi", Le Monde (in French), 10 October 2013.
  8. ^ Alexandre Lemarié, « Hortefeux, Ciotti, Morano… L’organigramme complet de la direction de l’UMP » Archived 16 January 2013 at Wikiwix, lemonde.fr, 15 January 2013
  9. ^ Nicholas Vinocur and Emmanuel Jarry (4 June 2014), Sarkozy allies urge him to return, lead divided opposition Reuters.
  10. ^ Tristan Quinault-Maupoil (21 August 2016), Primaire à droite : Christian Estrosi rallie Nicolas Sarkozy, Le Figaro (in French).
  11. ^ Sophie Louet and Richard Lough (25 July 2016), French government raps conservative opponents over Nice security row Reuters.
  12. ^ John Irish (5 March 2017), French conservative party heavyweights to push for Fillon alternative, says senior politician Reuters.
  13. ^ John Irish and Andrew Callus (5 March 2017), French conservatives in disarray as Fillon clings on Reuters.
  14. ^ a b Marc Leras and Dominique Vidalon (1 April 2017), Macron throws electoral net wide, meeting Sarkozy's man in the south Reuters.
  15. ^ "Christian Estrosi annonce sa démission de la présidence de la région PACA pour redevenir maire de Nice". Agence France-Presse. 8 May 2017. Retrieved 8 May 2017.
  16. ^ Geert De Clercq (21 February 2021), French city of Nice asks tourists to stay away amid COVID surge Reuters.
  17. ^ "Muselier, Falco, Estrosi : le trio infernal de la droite provençale", L'Obs (in French), 13 May 2021.
  18. ^ Board of Directors Chorégies d'Orange.
  19. ^ Amar Toor (2016-08-25). "French official threatens to sue social media users who share burkini photos". The Verge.
  20. ^ Press release from Deputy Mayor of Nice, 24 August 2016, Twitter.
  21. ^ Peine de mort : Christian Estrosi se « déteste, Le Point (in French), 1 December 2017.
  22. ^ Gilbert Reilhac and Elizabeth Miles (June 15, 2017), EU parliament strips Le Pen of immunity in defamation case Reuters.
  23. ^ Dominique Estrosi Sassone: Official biography Archived 2015-02-04 at the Wayback Machine
  24. ^ Olivier Bertrand, Nice : l’ex-femme d’Estrosi contre l’ex-maire, Libération, 14 March 2011.
  25. ^ Eric Gaillard and Sudip Kar-Gupta (20 March 2020), France's Nice city to close Promenade des Anglais over coronavirus Reuters.

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