Gilles Simeoni (French pronunciation: [ʒil simeɔni], Corsican: [simɛˈɔni]; born 20 April 1967) is a lawyer and politician in Corsica, France.
Notably, Simeoni served as the Corsican nationalist Yvan Colonna's lawyer at his trial for the assassination of Claude Érignac.
[1][5] The beginning of his political career came in 2001 when Simeoni and the A Mossa Naziunale movement, which he led at that time, supported Marie-Jean Vinciguerra during the Bastia municipal elections.
[12] Notably Simeoni rebuked Giacobbi calling his behavior in the Assembly a form of electoral clientelism and compared him to the Roman god Janus implying that his governing style was ambivalent.
[13][full citation needed] In the 2012 legislative elections Gilles Simeoni ran to represent Haute-Corse's 1st constituency which contains Bastia and Cap Corse.
Within his district he outperformed predictions by coming in second to the Union for a Popular Movement's Sauveur Gandolfi-Scheit ahead of the Radical Party of the Left's Jean Zuccarelli.
This was a confirmation of the narrowing gap between the two parties and gave credence to the thought of an eventual victory for Simeoni and Pe a Corsica in the 2014 municipal elections.
In the second round he picked up votes from the Union for a Popular Movement's Jean-Louis Milani and the Radical Party of the Left's François Tatti, leaving him with 55.40% of the total.