Jacques Peyrat

Who is Jacques Peyrat?

Jacques Peyrat is a right-wing French politician and lawyer who has been mayor of Nice since 1995 and senator from the Alpes-Maritimes since 1998.

Jacques Peyrat came from a military family that settled in Nice in 1946 where he studied law and letters. In 1947 at the age of 16 he joined the Rally of the French People, the political party that General Charles de Gaulle created that year.

In 1953 Peyrat enlisted in the 1st Foreign Parachute Battalion of the French Foreign Legion. It was in French Indochina that he met and became friends with the far-right politician Jean-Marie Le Pen.

Upon his return to civilian life, Peyrat united his social and professional interests. His presidency of parachute and aeronautical groups won him a silver medal for youth and sports.

In 1962 Peyrat began his political career, at first as a member of the National Centre of Independents and Peasants, and then in the breakaway Independent Republicans party of Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, as a Nice municipal councillor. At the same time, he practiced law with a specialty in penal law.