Christian Estrosi

Christian Estrosi
President of the Regional Council of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur
Incumbent
Assumed office 18 December 2015
Preceded by	Michel Vauzelle
Mayor of Nice
In office 21 March 2008 – 13 June 2016
Preceded by	Jacques Peyrat
Succeeded by	Philippe Pradal
Deputy Minister of Industry
In office 23 June 2009 – 13 November 2010
President	Nicolas Sarkozy
Prime Minister	François Fillon
Preceded by	Office created
Succeeded by	Éric Besson
Deputy Minister of Overseas France
In office 19 June 2007 – 17 March 2008
President	Nicolas Sarkozy
Prime Minister	François Fillon
Preceded by	Hervé Mariton
Succeeded by	Yves Jégo
Deputy Minister of Planning of the Territory
In office 2 June 2005 – 15 May 2007
President	Jacques Chirac
Prime Minister	Dominique de Villepin
Preceded by	Frédéric de Saint-Sernin
Succeeded by	Hubert Falco
Personal details
Born	(1955-07-01) 1 July 1955 Nice, Alpes-Maritimes, France
Nationality	French
Political party	Rally for the Republic (1988–2002) Union for a Popular Movement (2002–2015) Les Républicains (2015–present)
Spouse(s)	Dominique Sassone (1995–present)
Children	Two children
Profession	Motorcyclist
Religion	Christian (Roman Catholicism)

Christian Estrosi (born 1 July 1955) is a French sportsman and politician. He is a former professional motorcyclist and politician, a former Minister, a former Mayor of Nice, and the current President of the Regional Council of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur.

Early life

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

Career

Motorcycle racing

He was a professional motorcycle racer and competed at the world championship level in Grand Prix motorcycle racing.^[3] His best result was a fourth-place finish in the 500cc 1978 French Grand Prix.^[3] He repeated the result with another fourth-place finish at the 1979 Spanish Grand Prix.^[3] He received the Youth and Sports gold medal.

Political career

He was a member of the municipal council of Nice from 1983 to 1990, when he resigned.^[1] He was re-elected in 2008, when he was also elected Mayor of Nice.^[1] In 2013, he rejected a plan to build a mosque funded by a businessman from Saudi Arabia in Nice.^[4]

He has served as President of the Urban community of Nice Côte d'Azur since 2008 and Chairman of Métropole Nice Côte d'Azur since 2012. He served as regional councillor of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur from 1992 to 2002, and as its Vice President from 1992 to 1998.^[1] He served as Vice-president of the General Council of Alpes-Maritimes from 2001 to 2003, and as its President from 2003 to 2008.^[1]

He served as a member of the National Assembly of France for the 5th constituency of the Alpes-Maritimes from 1988 to 1993, then from 1997 to 2005, from 2008 to 2009, and has served in this capacity since 2010.^[1] In addition, he has held several ministerial positions in the French government in Paris.^[1] He was appointed on 2 June 2005 as Deputy Minister of Land Management.^[1] He was then appointed on 19 June 2007 as the Deputy Minister of the Overseas French territories (DOM-TOM).^[1] From 2009 to 2010, he served as Deputy Minister in charge of Industry.^[1]

He 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 Republican, an Officer of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland, and a Commander of the Order of Saint-Charles from Monaco.

In 2016, Estrosi threatened to sue people who distributed photos of an incident in which Nice police ordered a Muslim woman to remove her burkini, saying that circulating the photos would "provoke defamatory remarks and threats against police agents".^[5][6]

Personal life

He was married to Dominique Sassone, daughter of Jean Sassone (1931–2006), who served as Vice Mayor of Nice from 1977 to 1998.^[7][8]

References