André Trigano (born September 13th 1925 in Montreuil) is a businessman and former mayor of

Pamiers Pamiers (; oc, Pàmias ) is a commune and largest city in the Ariège department in the Occitanie region in southwestern France. It is a sub-prefecture of the department. It is the most populous commune in the Ariège department, although it ...

in the

French Pyrenees The Pyrenees (; es, Pirineos ; french: Pyrénées ; ca, Pirineu ; eu, Pirinioak ; oc, Pirenèus ; an, Pirineus) is a mountain range straddling the border of France and Spain. It extends nearly from its union with the Cantabrian Mountains to C ...

, a post he held from 1995 until 2020.

Biography

Trigano was born to immigrant

Sephardic Sephardic (or Sephardi) Jews (, ; lad, Djudíos Sefardíes), also ''Sepharadim'' , Modern Hebrew: ''Sfaradim'', Tiberian Hebrew, Tiberian: Səp̄āraddîm, also , ''Ye'hude Sepharad'', lit. "The Jews of Spain", es, Judíos sefardíes (or ), ...

Algerian Jewish The History of the Jews in Algeria refers to the history of the Jewish community of Algeria, which dates to the 1st century CE. In the 15th century, many Spanish Jews fled to the Maghreb, including today's Algeria, following expulsion from Spai ...

parents in Paris in 1925 and was 15 years old when the

Nazis Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Na ...

occupied the city during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. The family fled to the mountains of Ariège in the south of France when his parents were tipped off by a police officer who lived in their building that their names were on a

Gestapo The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one organi ...

arrest warrant. Trigano then joined the Resistance and was involved in assisting downed Allied pilots by forging documents that allowed them to escape to nearby Spain. He was arrested three times during the war by the Nazis. After the war, Trigano started a camping holiday business to complement his family's tent-making business. They subsequently won a contract to supply tents to the newly-established

Club Med Club Med SAS, commonly known as Club Med and previously known as Club Méditerranée SA, is a French travel and tourism operator headquartered in Paris, specializing in all-inclusive holidays. Founded in 1950, the company has been primarily o ...

– which in its first 15 years was a camping holiday business – renting tents for vacations in locations such as

Majorca Mallorca, or Majorca, is the largest island in the Balearic Islands, which are part of Spain and located in the Mediterranean. The capital of the island, Palma, is also the capital of the autonomous community of the Balearic Islands. The Bal ...

Corfu Corfu (, ) or Kerkyra ( el, Κέρκυρα, Kérkyra, , ; ; la, Corcyra.) is a Greek island in the Ionian Sea, of the Ionian Islands, and, including its small satellite islands, forms the margin of the northwestern frontier of Greece. The isl ...

and

Djerba Djerba (; ar, جربة, Jirba, ; it, Meninge, Girba), also transliterated as Jerba or Jarbah, is a Tunisian island and the largest island of North Africa at , in the Gulf of Gabès, off the coast of Tunisia. It had a population of 139,544 a ...

in Tunisia. Trigano was the founder of the Campéole group, which now includes 40 campsites in France and

Corsica Corsica ( , Upper , Southern ; it, Corsica; ; french: Corse ; lij, Còrsega; sc, Còssiga) is an island in the Mediterranean Sea and one of the 18 regions of France. It is the fourth-largest island in the Mediterranean and lies southeast of ...

. This company was sold to the Central Fund of Social Activities of the Electricity and Gas Industries (CCAS) on December 30, 2009. Trigano has a long career in politics, first serving as mayor of Mazeres between 1971 and 1995, while simultaneously serving as a deputy in the

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the repre ...

for the 2nd constituency of Ariège. He held the office of the mayor of Pamiers from 1995 until 2020 and was succeeded by Frédérique Thiennot. He has contested 19 elections, was re-elected in the first round in 2008 with 50.65% of votes and has lost twice. He is also a former racing driver, a member of the second district of Ariege from 1993 to 1997, and chairman of the Committee on Tourism Midi-Pyrenees. He was general counsel of the township of

Saverdun Saverdun (; Languedocien: ''Savardun'') is a commune in the Ariège department in southwestern France. Population Inhabitants of Saverdun are called ''Saverdunois'' in French. Name Saverdun gave its name to the former city of Verdun, Queb ...

for 12 years. On December 14, 2012, Andre Trigano sued Milan Kovac of

Bratislava, Slovakia Bratislava (, also ; ; german: Preßburg/Pressburg ; hu, Pozsony) is the capital and largest city of Slovakia. Officially, the population of the city is about 475,000; however, it is estimated to be more than 660,000 — approximately 140% of ...

for infringing on copyright and trademark laws by registering the domain name www.andretrigano.com. The

WIPO The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO; french: link=no, Organisation mondiale de la propriété intellectuelle (OMPI)) is one of the 15 specialized agencies of the United Nations (UN). Pursuant to the 1967 Convention Establishin ...

ruled in favor of Trigano and ordered the domain to be transferred to Andre.

Personal life

Trigano is a

classic car A classic car is an older car, typically 25 years or older, though definitions vary.While other languages, such as German and Dutch, may refer to classic cars as "oldtimers", this usage is unknown in English, where "old-timer" refers to an elder ...

collector. He had a collection of around 180 classic cars, which have since been sold as of September 2020, including vintage Citroens,

Cadillacs The Cadillac Motor Car Division () is a division of the American automobile manufacturer General Motors (GM) that designs and builds luxury vehicles. Its major markets are the United States, Canada, and China. Cadillac models are distributed in ...

Triumphs ''Triumphs'' (Italian language, Italian: ''I Trionfi'') is a 14th-century Italian series of poems, written by Petrarch in the Tuscan language. The poem evokes the Roman triumph, Roman ceremony of triumph, where victorious generals and their armies ...

, Rolls Royces, and an

Excalibur Excalibur () is the legendary sword of King Arthur, sometimes also attributed with magical powers or associated with the rightful sovereignty of Britain. It was associated with the Arthurian legend very early on. Excalibur and the Sword in th ...

Awards and honors

* Officier de la Légion d’honneur, 2008 * Commandeur de l'ordre national du Mérite, 2011

References

Living people Politics of France 1925 births {{france-business-bio-stub