Alexandre Avril
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Alexandre Avril | |
|---|---|
 Avril in 2024 | |
| Member of the Regional Council of Centre-Val de Loire | |
| Assumed office 2 July 2021 | |
| Constituency | Loir-et-Cher |
| President of Sologne des Rivières | |
| Assumed office 3 July 2020 | |
| Preceded by | Olivier Pavy |
| Mayor of Salbris | |
| Assumed office 28 June 2020 | |
| Preceded by | Olivier Pavy |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 19 April 1992 Romorantin-Lanthenay, France |
| Party | Union of the Right for the Republic (since 2024) |
Other political affiliations | The Republicans (until 2024) |
| Relatives | Jacky Avril (uncle) |
| Education | Lycée Henri-IV |
| Alma mater | École normale supérieure HEC Paris Paris-Sorbonne University Panthéon-Sorbonne University |
Alexandre Avril (French pronunciation: [alɛksɑ̃dʁ avʁil]; born 19 April 1992) is a French politician, philosopher, and local official. He has served as mayor of Salbris and president of the Sologne des Rivières since 2020,[1] and as a member of the Regional Council of Centre-Val de Loire since 2021.[2]
In 2024, he was appointed Vice President of the Union of the Right for the Republic (UDR), a new political movement led by Éric Ciotti, which he joined leaving The Republicans (LR). He is in charge of policy proposals and ideological orientation of the movement.[3][4]
He is also known for his academic work on Friedrich Nietzsche and René Girard.[5]
In media, Avril has been described as holding right-wing to far-right positions,[6] and faces critics about his conservative views on LGBTQ rights, Islam, immigration and laicity.[7]
Avril was born in Romorantin-Lanthenay and grew up in Salbris, in the Sologne region.
His father worked as an accountant and his mother in a sheltered workshop for people with disabilities. His paternal grandfather worked as a factory worker for Matra and his grandmother was a primary schoolteacher in Salbris.[8] Alexandre Avril is the nephew of Jacky Avril, a French slalom canoeist and bronze medalist at the 1992 Summer Olympics.[8]
He attended Lycée Claude-de-France in Romorantin, then completed literary preparatory classes at Lycée Henri-IV in Paris. He entered the École normale supérieure (ENS Ulm) in 2013. He also studied at the international business school HEC Paris and Panthéon-Sorbonne University, from which he graduated in 2017. He received a PhD in philosophy from Paris Sciences et Lettres University in 2023, under the supervision of Paolo D'Iorio.
He has taught seminars at the École normale supérieure.[9] He later worked in finance at the Italian investment bank Mediobanca and founded a consultancy on local development.[10] He also worked as parliamentary assistant to Socialist Party senator Jeanny Lorgeoux.[11] In 2022, he and his wife opened a bookstore in Salbris called Le Temps Retrouvé.[12]
Political career
A member of the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) from 2007, Avril worked on François Fillon's 2017 presidential campaign. In 2017, he launched a digital grievances book for the Sologne region.[13][14]
In 2020, Avril campaigned under the slogan "United for Salbris" during the municipal elections, as the lead candidate of an independent right-wing list. He was elected mayor during the second round, beating the other list with nearly 58% of electoral votes.[15] In July 2020, he was elected president of the intermunicipal council Sologne des Rivières.[16] In the 2021 regional election in Centre-Val de Loire, he was designated as lead candidate of the Union of the Right and Centre in Loir-et-Cher,[17] and was elected to the Regional Council.[2]
He was elected unopposed as leader of The Republicans in Loir-et-Cher in November 2023.[18]
Ahead of the 2024 legislative election, Avril supported Éric Ciotti's alliance with the National Rally.[19][20][21] In September 2024, he joined the newly created Union of the Right for the Republic (UDR) as Vice President for studies and program development.[3]
Political positions
In high school, Avril was defending 'social justice', according to an ancient professor. During the 2020 Salbris municipal election, he was presented as a "social gaullist". After few months, citizens told he made a "political shift" to the far-right. He is described by Mediapart as "trumpist". Libération found links with "radical far-right". According to L'Humanité, he created in Salbris a "right-wing union laboratory". Many left-wing medias wrote he was following French billionaire Pierre-Édouard Stérin's "far-right" project for 2026 municipal elections.[22][23][24]