With upcoming elections and the future electoral campaign, Christian Estrosi is fine-tuning and strengthening the operational framework of his institutional leaders on the eve of the rentrée after a very short summer vacation.
These appointments reinforce the certainty that the Mayor of Nice, despite his displayed silence on the matter, will probably be a candidate for his own succession and that the delay in communicating this might simply be due to the desire to fully leverage, and rightly so, his role as Mayor for a successful communication campaign during the inaugurations, in the fall, of some of his major projects like the Allianz Riviera, the green corridor of the Promenade du Paillon, the Gare du Sud, or the ex-Sulzer parking.
If the organization of the Communications service (a cornerstone of the Mayor-President’s strategy… a Freudian slip, one might say) remains unchanged under the authority of the brilliant Anthony Borré, Chief of Staff, other changes will be implemented starting September 1st.
Here are the new appointments and the reasons behind them:
Jean-Robert Lefèvre, Special Adviser in the office of the Mayor-President of the Metropolis, becomes Deputy to the Prefect, Director General of Services, Anne Boquet. He will be responsible, alongside the Director General of Services, for strengthening the coordination of the administration and facilitating a cross-cutting approach to structuring projects, notably the future West-East tramway line.
Didier Wisselmann, former Deputy Director of Christian Estrosi’s office at the Ministry of Industry, Sub-prefect, and current Head of the Economic Service at the French Embassy in Israel, becomes Deputy Director General of Economy and Employment within the Metropolis administration. His expertise and mastery of contemporary economic issues will strengthen the General Directorate’s Strategy pole in its efforts to develop employment, a top priority for Christian Estrosi, Deputy Mayor of Nice, President of the Nice Côte d’Azur Metropolis.
Dimitri Triadafillidis, Deputy Chief of Staff, becomes Secretary General of the EUROMED Cities Network. With the establishment of the permanent general secretariat of EUROMED in Nice, a decision made during the plenary session in Fez on February 3 and 4, 2010, it is important to ensure the development and sustainability of actions decided by the member cities.
Moreover, he retains his role as coordinator of the Nice Jazz Festival.
Christophe Darmon, former police commander who led the Departmental Intervention Company of Nice for 20 years, becomes Director of the Municipal Police under the authority of Sylviane Casanova, Deputy Director General of Security and Prevention.
