Alain Joissains

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]

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]

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]