Éric Piolle (born 6 January 1973) is a French politician of

Europe Ecology – The Greens Europe Ecology – The Greens (french: Europe Écologie Les Verts , EELV ) is a centre-left to left-wing green political party in France. The party is a member of the European Green Party. The party was formed on 13 November 2010 from the merge ...

(EELV) who has been serving as mayor of

Grenoble lat, Gratianopolis , commune status = Prefecture and commune , image = Panorama grenoble.png , image size = , caption = From upper left: Panorama of the city, Grenoble’s cable cars, place Saint- ...

since 2014. . He was Regional Councillor of

Rhône-Alpes Rhône-Alpes () was an administrative region of France. Since 1 January 2016, it is part of the new region Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. It is located on the eastern border of the country, towards the south. The region was named after the river Rhône an ...

from March 2010 to April 2014.

Education and business career

Piolle was born in Pau, France where he attended

Lycée Louis-Barthou Lycée Louis-Barthou is a secondary school in Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques, France. History The school's history goes back to a religious establishment founded by Jesuits in 1640. It is named for French politician Louis Barthou. Academics The ...

. After graduating, he went to the

Grenoble Institute of Technology The Grenoble Institute of Technology (Grenoble INP) (''Institut polytechnique de Grenoble'', ''Groupe Grenoble INP'' and before INPG) is a French technological university system consisting of eight engineering and management schools. Grenoble INP ...

to study engineering. He joined the

Hewlett-Packard The Hewlett-Packard Company, commonly shortened to Hewlett-Packard ( ) or HP, was an American multinational information technology company headquartered in Palo Alto, California. HP developed and provided a wide variety of hardware components ...

Company in 2001, and became a senior manager at the Grenoble site. In February 2011, he was fired for refusing to set up a relocation plan. He co-founded the company Raise Partners, a company specializing in financial risk management.

Political career

Early beginnings

In 1997, at 24, Piolle was a parliamentary candidate for the eighth district of

Isère Isère ( , ; frp, Isera; oc, Isèra, ) is a landlocked department in the southeastern French region of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. Named after the river Isère, it had a population of 1,271,166 in 2019.department Department may refer to: * Departmentalization, division of a larger organization into parts with specific responsibility Government and military *Department (administrative division), a geographical and administrative division within a country, ...

in the

region In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and the interaction of humanity and t ...

, as a member of Europe Ecology. In June 2012, Piolle was a parliamentary candidate for the first district of Isère as a member of EELV, he won 7.7% of votes.

Mayor of Grenoble

In 2014, Piolle became a candidate for mayor of Grenoble during the municipal elections, his motto being "Grenoble, Une Ville pour Tous" (Grenoble, A City for All). He was the leading candidate throughout the race, gathering support from environmentalists, EELV, the Left Party, The Alternatives, the Anticapitalist Left, and two local associations, ADES and the Citizen Network. He was elected during a city council session on April 4, 2014, succeeding

Michel Destot Michel Destot (born 2 September 1946) is a member of the National Assembly of France. He represents the Isère department, and is a member of the Socialiste, radical, citoyen et divers gauche. He was the mayor of Grenoble between 1995 and ...

( PS) as mayor of Grenoble. He received 50 votes out of the 59 councilors. After this election

becomes the first French city with more than 100 000 inhabitants to elect an EELV municipal government. After winning the election, Piolle declined to run for president of

Grenoble-Alpes Métropole Grenoble-Alpes Métropole is the ''métropole'', an intercommunal structure, centred on the city of Grenoble. It is located in the Isère department, in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, eastern France. It was created in January 2015, replacing ...

, and resigned from his position as a regional councilor of

. In the French presidential election of 2017, Piolle called on voters to support

Jean-Luc Mélenchon Jean-Luc Antoine Pierre Mélenchon (; born 19 August 1951) is a French politician who was a member of the National Assembly for the 4th constituency of Bouches-du-Rhône from 2017 to 2022. He led the ''La France Insoumise'' group in the Nation ...

. Following a proposal by Piolle, the municipal council of Grenoble voted in favour of allowing the use of body-covering "burkini" bathing suits for women in municipal pools in May 2022, sparking protest from conservative and far-right politicians. In response,

Minister of the Interior An interior minister (sometimes called a minister of internal affairs or minister of home affairs) is a cabinet official position that is responsible for internal affairs, such as public security, civil registration and identification, emergency ...

Gérald Darmanin Gérald Moussa Darmanin (; born 11 October 1982) is a French politician who has been serving as Minister of the Interior in the governments of Prime Ministers Jean Castex and Élisabeth Borne since 2020. A former member of The Republicans (L ...

filed an objection against the burkini permit. Shortly after, a French administrative court suspended the city of Grenoble's decision.Geert De Clercq (25 May 2022)
French court scraps rule allowing burkinis in Grenoble swimming pools
''

Reuters Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters Corporation. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency was estab ...

''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Piolle, Eric Mayors of Grenoble 1973 births Living people Europe Ecology – The Greens politicians Grenoble Institute of Technology alumni 21st-century French engineers 21st-century French scientists