Félix Ciccolini (1916–2010) was a French politician. He was the

mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a Municipal corporation, municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilitie ...

Aix-en-Provence Aix-en-Provence, or simply Aix, is a List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, city and Communes of France, commune in southern France, about north of Marseille. A former capital of Provence, it is the Subprefectures in France, s ...

from 1967 to 1978 and a member of the

Senate of France The Senate (, ) is the upper house of the French Parliament, with the lower house being the National Assembly (France), National Assembly, the two houses constituting the legislature of France. It is made up of 348 senators (''sénateurs'' and ...

for the

Bouches-du-Rhône Bouches-du-Rhône ( ; , ; ; "the Mouths of the Rhône") is a Departments of France, department in southern France. It borders Vaucluse to the north, Gard to the west and Var (department), Var to the east. The Mediterranean Sea lies to the sout ...

from 1971 to 1989.

Biography

Early life

Félix Ciccolini was born on 2 October 1916 in

Cozzano Cozzano (; ) is a commune in the Corse-du-Sud department of France on the island of Corsica. Population See also *Communes of the Corse-du-Sud department The following is a list of the 124 Communes of France, communes of the department ...

Corsica Corsica ( , , ; ; ) is an island in the Mediterranean Sea and one of the Regions of France, 18 regions of France. It is the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, fourth-largest island in the Mediterranean and lies southeast of the Metro ...

.French Senate
/ref>
''

La Provence ''La Provence'' is a French language daily newspaper published in Marseille, France. History and profile In 1997 ''La Provence'' was created in Marseille from the merger of two daily newspapers, ''Le Provençal'' of former Interior Minister Ga ...

'', 1 May 2010 He studied law.

Career

He started working as a lawyer in Aix-en-Provence in 1938. He joined the

French Section of the Workers' International The French Section of the Workers' International (, SFIO) was a major socialist political party in France which was founded in 1905 and succeeded in 1969 by the present Socialist Party. The SFIO was founded in 1905 as the French representativ ...

and later the

Socialist Party Socialist Party is the name of many different political parties around the world. All of these parties claim to uphold some form of socialism, though they may have very different interpretations of what "socialism" means. Statistically, most of th ...

. He became a city councillor of Aix in 1953. From 1964 to 1988, he served on the general council of Aix-Nord. He was mayor of Aix-en-Provence from 1967 to 1978."Aix : Félix Ciccolini, mort d'un bâtisseur"
''La Provence'', 2 May 2010 During his tenure, he oversaw the growth of the town, due in large part to the return to the homeland of former inhabitants of colonial

French Algeria French Algeria ( until 1839, then afterwards; unofficially ; ), also known as Colonial Algeria, was the period of History of Algeria, Algerian history when the country was a colony and later an integral part of France. French rule lasted until ...

and the ''

harki ''Harki'' (adjective from the Algerian Arabic "''ḥarka''", standard Arabic "''ḥaraka''" �ركة "war party" or "movement", i.e., a group of volunteer militia) is the generic term for native Muslim Algerians who served as auxiliaries alongs ...

s'' after the independence of

Algeria Algeria, officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered to Algeria–Tunisia border, the northeast by Tunisia; to Algeria–Libya border, the east by Libya; to Alger ...

. For example, he commissioned the construction of a new neighbourhood, the ''Jas de Bouffan'', where 12,000 new inhabitants moved in the 1970s, and another neighbourhood, closer to the city centre, called ''Encagnane''. Additionally, he was a senator for the Bouches-du-Rhône from 1971 to 1989. He called for an increase in prison staff. He supported the repeal of the

death penalty Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty and formerly called judicial homicide, is the state-sanctioned killing of a person as punishment for actual or supposed misconduct. The sentence ordering that an offender be punished in s ...

in 1981. He denounced the

Office de Radiodiffusion Télévision Française The (; ORTF; , or French Radio and Television Broadcasting Office) was the national agency charged, between 1964 and 1975, with providing public radio and television in France. All programming, especially news broadcasts, were under strict cont ...

for being too monopolistic and thus a threat to democracy, and called for a plurality of radio and television media. On 13 February 1979, he sent an open letter to

Jean François-Poncet Jean François-Poncet (; 8 December 1928 – 18 July 2012) was a French politician and diplomat who served as Minister of Foreign Affairs under President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing from 1978 to 1981. From 1983 until 2011, he was a member of t ...

(1928–2012), the French Minister of Foreign Affairs, to ask him to call for a release of French citizens who were kidnapped in Algeria shortly after the

Évian Accords The Évian Accords were a set of declarations between the French Government and the Provisional Government of the Algerian Republic on 18 March 1962 in Évian-les-Bains which outlined the agreements for Algeria's Independence alongside coope ...

of 1962. Moreover, he voted in favour of lowering the

age of majority The age of majority is the threshold of legal adulthood as recognized or declared in law. It is the moment when a person ceases to be considered a minor (law), minor, and assumes legal control over their person, actions, and decisions, thus te ...

from 21 to 18 in 1974, the legalization of abortion in 1975, and a reform to facilitate divorce, also in 1975. Even though he supported

Gaston Defferre Gaston Defferre (14 September 1910 – 7 May 1986) was a French Socialist politician. He served as mayor of Marseille for 33 years until his death in 1986. He was minister for overseas territories in Guy Mollet’s socialist government in 1956 ...

(1910–1986), he voted for

Valéry Giscard d'Estaing Valéry René Marie Georges Giscard d'Estaing (, ; ; 2 February 19262 December 2020), also known as simply Giscard or VGE, was a French politician who served as President of France from 1974 to 1981. After serving as Ministry of the Economy ...

in 1974. In 1996, he wrote a book about the village where he was born, Cozzano.

Personal life

He died on 1 May 2010 in

Ajaccio Ajaccio (, , ; French language, French: ; or ; , locally: ; ) is the capital and largest city of Corsica, France. It forms a communes of France, French commune, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Corse-du-Sud, and head o ...

, Corsica. He was buried in the family plot of the Cozzano cemetery.

Bibliography

* Félix Ciccolini, ''Histoire de Cozzano: 1800–1935: Le Haut-Taravo'' (A. Piazzola, 1996, 263 pages).''Histoire de Cozzano''
at Google Books

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ciccolini, Felix 1916 births 2010 deaths People from Corse-du-Sud French Section of the Workers' International politicians Socialist Party (France) politicians French senators of the Fifth Republic Mayors of Aix-en-Provence French city councillors 20th-century French lawyers Senators of Bouches-du-Rhône