The second round of the 2015 departmental elections in the French Republic yesterday confirmed first round trends, as leftist forces lost ground to rightist parties throughout France. In three stateless nations (Basque Country, Brittany and Corsica), pro-autonomy parties have seen some of their representatives elected to the departmental councils.

In the Northern Basque Country, Euskal Herria Bai (EH Bai, a platform emerged from the confluence of Basque abertzale left parties in 2007) confirmed first round good results by winning yesterday two seats to the Departamental Council of the Pyrénées-Atlantiques. The seats are those of the Errobi-Aturri/Nive-Adour canton, where EH Bai candidates Alain Iriart and Fabienne Ayensa secured 78% of the votes while National Front (FN) candidates got 22%. Thus, Iriart keeps his seat in the council, which he won in 2011 in the Hiriburu canton.

EH Bai candidates ran yesterday in another four cantons. All of them were defeated. In Donibane Lohizune/Saint-Jean-de-Luz, the abertzale candidates lost by a 9-point margin; in the other three, the defeat was larger. Nevertheless, having advanced to the second round in five different cantons is a milestone victory for EH Bai.

The Northern Basque country is included in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques together with the Occitan territory of Bearn. The Socialist Party (PS) yesterday emerged as the largest party in the departmental council, albeit without an absolute majority.

In Brittany, pro-autonomy Movement Brittany Progress (MBP) candidates won yesterday in two cantons. In Karaez/Carhaix (department of Finistère), MBP leader Christian Troadec and Corinne Nicole secured victory. The same goes in Gourin (department of Morbihan) for MBP and UDB-supported candidates Christian Derrien and Ghislaine Langlet. Troadec, Derrien and Langlet thus keep their seats which they had already won in 2011.

Pro-autonomy UDB was running candidates in the second round in three cantons in coalition with the PS. All three lost to rightist candidates, two of them by a margin of just 50 votes.

Out of five Breton departaments, the left won in three of them (Finistère, Loire-Atlantique and Ile-et-Vilaine) while the right secured victory in two (Côtes-d'Armor and Morbihan).

In Corsica, leftist parties won in the department of Haute-Corse while conservative forces emerged victorious in Corse-du-Sud. Pro-autonomy Femu a Corsica/Insieme per Bastia candidates secured three seats, all of them in Bastia: Anne Avenoso, Vanina Le Bomin and Joseph Gandolfi. Up till now, pro-autonomy forces did not have any seat in the Departmental Council of Haute-Corse.

This is the inverse situation for the Departmental Council of Corse-du-Sud, where Corsican forces held two seats but they have lost both in the 2015 election.

In any case, it is expected that Corsica's departmental councils will be merged with the Corsican Assembly at the end of 2017, as the island gets a unique territorial collectivity.

In Northern Catalonia, the left keeps its majority at the departmental council as the FN has been defeated in all cantons disputed (16 of 17), and thus Marine Le Pen's party will not have a single seat in the Catalan territory. As for the Catalan parties, Marie-Claude Conte-Grégoire (Catalan Unity, UC) had options to win a seat for the Vall d'Aglí canton, running in coalition with André Bascou (UMP). Conte-Grégoire and Bascou lost by a 250-vote margin to socialist candidates Lola Beuze and Charles Chivilo.

In Alsace, the UMP secured victory in both departments (Bas-Rhin and Haut-Rhin). No candidate of pro-autonomy Unser Land party happened to advance into the second round. Still, party leaders said the 2015 election is historical for Unser Land, since it became the third largest party in votes in the first round, although it did not get a single seat.

In Occitania, no candidate hailing from Occitan parties advanced into the second round. Generally speaking, the left has won in the departments of western and southern Occitania, while the right will be in control of those in the north and the east. It is worth noting that the National Front has not been able to win the elections in the departments of Var and Vaucluse (Provence), where Le Pen's party had put much hope: both territories have been secured by the UMP.

Further information:

• Nationalia article on the first round
• All the results can be found on the Interior Ministry of the French Republic