Alain Joissains

Alain Joissains
Residence	Aix-en-Provence
Nationality	French
Occupation	Politician
Spouse(s)	Maryse Joissains-Masini (divorced)
Children	Sophie Joissains

Alain Joissains is a French politician. He served as the Mayor of Aix-en-Provence from 1978 to 1983.

His father was a policeman. He started working as a cabin boy at the age of fifteen and as a stevedore in Toulon by the age of seventeen. He studied Law at Aix-Marseille University and received a Doctorate. He started working as a lawyer in Aix.

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. Instead, he supported Jean-Jacques Servan-Schreiber (1924-2006) and joined the Radical Party, a centre-right political party.

He served as the Mayor of Aix-en-Provence from 1978 to 1983. 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. He retorted that Gaston Defferre (1910-1986), who then served as Mayor of adjacent Marseille and as Minister of Interior Affairs, had skemed this plot to squander his chances of reelection. However, he did receive a two-year suspended prison sentence for embezzlement. Subsequently, his father-in-law committed suicide and he got divorced. However, he still maintained he was innocent.

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).

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