Mayors of places in Provence-Alpes-C\u00f4te d'Azur

Émile_Hugues

Émile Hugues (b. Vence, 7 April 1901 – d. Paris, 10 February 1966) was a French politician and government minister.
With a doctorate in law and by profession a notaire, Hugues was elected in 1946 as a Radical-Socialist député for the Alpes-Maritimes département to the second constituent National Assembly, and subsequently to the Assemblée nationale, in which he sat until 1958. In 1959, he was elected to the Senate as a member of the Gauche démocratique (Democratic Left). He died in office.
Hugues left the government following the rejection of the planned European Defence Community in 1954, which he had warmly supported. He followed Henri Queuille and André Morice into the Radical dissidence in 1956, which led to the creation of the Centre républicain. He voted for Charles de Gaulle in June 1958, but was beaten in the November 1958 elections.
He was mayor of Vence and councillor for the Alpes-Maritimes.
The castle in Vences is today the Fondation Émile Hugues, a modern and contemporary art museum.

Michel_Vauzelle

Michel Vauzelle (born 15 August 1944) is a French politician who served as Keeper of the Seals of France, Minister of Justice under Prime Minister Pierre Bérégovoy from 1992 to 1993. A member of the Socialist Party (PS), he also served as Mayor of Arles from 1995 to 1998 and President of the Regional Council of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur from 1998 until 2015.
A native of Montélimar, Vauzelle was a Member of Parliament (MP) for Bouches-du-Rhône from 1986 to 1992 and again from 1997 to 2002 and 2007 to 2017. He was first elected at-large (1986–1988), before representing the department's 16th constituency. In 2007, he defeated Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) incumbent Roland Chassain who had previously defeated him in 2002. Vauzelle, who had a narrower victory against a National Front (FN) candidate in 2012, did not contest the 2017 legislative election, in which the seat was won by Monica Michel of La République En Marche! (LREM), a first-time candidate.

François_Léotard

François Gérard Marie Léotard (French pronunciation: [fʁɑ̃swa ʒeʁaʁ maʁi leɔtaʁ]; 26 March 1942 – 25 April 2023) was a French politician. Singer and actor Philippe Léotard was his brother.
A member of the Republican Party, the liberal-conservative component of the Union for French Democracy (UDF), he appeared in the foreground of the political scene in the 1980s. He led a new generation of right-wing politicians, the "renovationmen", who opposed the old right-wing leaders Jacques Chirac and Valéry Giscard d'Estaing.
In 1981, he was selected to be one of the first Young Leaders of the French-American Foundation. His political career started with being elected as the mayor of Fréjus in 1977. He served two terms as the deputy of Var.As culture minister from 1986 to 1988, he sold the main public TV channel TF1. He returned to the French cabinet as defense minister, from 1993 to 1995. Supporting the candidacy of Edouard Balladur in the 1995 presidential election, he was dismissed after Chirac's election. Elected president of the UDF in 1996, he could not prevent the split of this confederation two years later with Alain Madelin's secession. This and the party's poor showing in the 1998 regional elections prompted his resignation. After a mission in Macedonia in 2001 as representative of the European Union, he retired from politics. In 2003, he created together with other prominent European personalities the Medbridge Strategy Center, whose goal is to promote dialogue and mutual understanding between Europe and the Middle East. He later authored several books.
Léotard died in Fréjus on 25 April 2023, at age 81.

Bernard_Cornut-Gentille

Bernard Cornut-Gentille (26 July 1909 – 21 January 1992) was a French administrator and politician.
Born in Brest, Finistère, Cornut-Gentille studied at the École Libre des Sciences Politiques. In 1943 he was appointed as the Subprefect of Reims, but resigned to assist the Free French delegate Émile Bollaert. Following the Liberation of France he served as Prefect of Ille-et-Vilaine, of the Somme, and of the Bas-Rhin. In 1948 he was appointed High Commissioner in French Equatorial Africa then, from 1951 to 1956, High Commissioner in French West Africa.After this, he served as France's permanent representative to the United Nations Security Council, and in 1957 as ambassador to Argentina.Standing for the Gaullist Party, the UNR, he was elected to represent Alpes-Maritimes in the 1958 election to the National Assembly of France. He had been minister without portfolio in June 1958, then Minister of Overseas France from 3 June 1958 to 8 January 1959 in the governments of Charles de Gaulle. Under Michel Debré he served as Minister of Posts, Telegraphs, and Telephones from 8 January 1959 to 5 February 1960. He resigned ministerial office at the same time as Jacques Soustelle, over the handling of the affair of the barricades in Algiers and broke with the Gaullists.
He sat in the National Assembly as an independent (French: non-inscrit) until 1968 and again from 1973 to 1978. Locally, he served as mayor of Cannes from 1959 to 1978. Here he initiated a programme of redevelopment and renovation.
His nephew François Cornut-Gentille has served as representative of the Haute-Marne department since 1993 and mayor of Saint-Dizier since 1995.

Paul_Ricard

Paul Louis Marius Ricard (French pronunciation: [pɔl lwi maʁjys ʁikaʁ]; July 9, 1909 – November 7, 1997) was a French industrialist and creator of an eponymous pastis brand which merged in 1975 with its competitor Pernod to create Pernod Ricard. Ricard was also an environmentalist and the developer of two Mediterranean islands, as well as the builder of the Circuit Paul Ricard in Le Castellet.