In brief

Occitanist candidates launch preparations for 2020 electoral race

Bastir movement seeks to advance Occitanism in local councils

Bastir meeting.
Bastir meeting. Author: Jiròni Picas / Jornalet
The Occitanist movement is seeking to field candidates in as many municipalities as it can get in the 2020 French local elections, it has emerged after elected officials and members of different pro-Occitan sectors met last Saturday in Toulouse with the aim of “creating a coordination that allows a visible and effective campaign for the Occitan movement in those elections.” In this regard, those attending the meeting decided to build on the action started by the Bastir movement in 2014 in some one hundred municipalities, and further develop it in the face of the 2020 elections.

The aim of the Bastir movement is to bring Occitanism into town councils and inter-municipal bodies, as a movement of active Occitans who are engaged in social life, with an eye to language, culture and territory.

In the coming weeks, the movement will organize meetings and political debates across Occitania. The next meeting will be on February 9 in Toulouse, where the movement expects to get more people on board.

In the 2014 local elections, Bastir got a few more than 50 councillors elected, in its first ever electoral race.

(This news is adapted from Jornalet, an Occitan news site with which Nationalia maintains a cooperation agreement.)