• The only candidate in the running, Sophie Joissains, 51, was elected to replace her resigned mother Maryse (LR). 

  • It perpetuates a family dynasty that began in 1978.

The former senator Sophie Joissains (UDI) was unsurprisingly elected on Friday mayor of Aix-en-Provence to replace her resigned mother Maryse (LR), perpetuating a family dynasty started in 1978 by her father Alain at the head of the second city of Bouches-du Rhône.

The only candidate in the running, Sophie Joissains, 51, was elected with 38 votes out of the 40 in the municipal majority, one of whom was absent and another voted blank.

The fifteen opposition advisers (LREM and left) left the meeting before the start of the ballot and did not participate in the vote.

Sophie Joissains said she was "proud" of the confidence that the outgoing mayor, her mother Maryse Joissains-Massini, 79, has placed in her by asking her to stand for this vote and that the municipal majority has granted her in voting for it.

"Together we will succeed in the challenge which is posed to us of renewal in continuity", she launched, situating her mandate in the extension of that of her mother who directed the city for twenty years.

Maryse Joissains, who resigned in mid-September citing health reasons, was not physically present at the city council, where her daughter voted in her place: "It's a strong but deeply painful day," said Sophie Joissains, on the verge of tears, during his speech.

The opposition denounces a deception

On December 7, the former mayor of Aix-en-Provence was sentenced on appeal to eight months suspended prison sentence and three years of ineligibility for "illegal taking of interests and embezzlement".

She appealed to the Supreme Court and the hearing is due to take place at the end of September.

For the opposition, the handover between the mother and the daughter at the head of the town hall of Aix-en-Provence, barely a year after his fourth election, in the municipal elections of 2020, constitutes a deception for the voters who had voted Maryse and not Sophie.

They denounced a hereditary transmission prepared even before the last elections.

Politics

In Aix-en-Provence, the town hall is more than ever a family affair

Politics

Aix-en-Provence: Maryse Joissains resigns from her post of mayor which she held since 2001

  • Maryse Joissains

  • Aix en Provence

  • Municipal elections

  • Town hall