Early life

His father was a policeman.^[1] He started working as a cabin boy at the age of fifteen and as a stevedore in Toulon by the age of seventeen.^[1] He studied law at Aix-Marseille University and received a doctorate.^[1] He started working as a lawyer in Aix.^[1]

Political career

He became interested in politics upon his disappointment in General Charles de Gaulle (1890-1970)'s abandonment of the harkis during the Algerian War of 1954-1962.^[1] Instead, he supported Jean-Jacques Servan-Schreiber (1924-2006) and joined the Radical Party, a centre-right political party.^[2]

He served as the Mayor of Aix-en-Provence from 1978 to 1983.^[2][3] During his tenure, he lowered the local tax by 2%, increased the number of pocket parks and car-parks, and encouraged low-income inhabitants to purchase the council flats they lived in. By January 1983, as he was set to be re-elected as mayor with a 66% majority, he was accused by the tabloid newspaper Le Canard enchaîné of embezzlement in order to pay for the construction of his father-in-law's house in Saint-Antonin-sur-Bayon.^[1][3] He retorted that Gaston Defferre (1910-1986), who then served as Mayor of adjacent Marseille and as Minister of Interior Affairs, had schemed this plot to squander his chances of reelection.^[1] However, he did receive a two-year suspended prison sentence for embezzlement.^[1] Subsequently, his father-in-law committed suicide and he got divorced.^[1] However, he still maintained he was innocent.^[3]

In 1995, he published a memoir he co-wrote with his wife about his experience, entitled Sang et or: combat pour Aix-en-Provence (English: Blood and gold: the fight for Aix-en-Provence).

From 2001 to 2008, he served as an assistant to the Mayor of Aix, then his former wife.^[2][3][4] He stepped down after he was accused of being paid too much for his position due to possible cronyism.^[3][4][5] However, his wife suggested he was paid as much as former assistants to the Mayors of Aix.^[2] Even though he no longer gets paid, he still attends the meetings of the city council, when he sits behind his wife.^[3]

Personal life

He was married to Maryse Joissains-Masini, who has served as the mayor of Aix-en-Provence since 2001.^[2][3] They have a daughter, Sophie Joissains, who serves as a French senator.^[3]