In brief

Second federation of stateless nations’ and regional parties established in France

Pays Unis set to run in June legislative election

Launch meeting of the Pays Unis party federation.
Launch meeting of the Pays Unis party federation. Author: Prouvènço Nacioun
Five Occitan, Breton, Basque and Lorraine political parties have established the Fédération des Pays Unis with the short term aim of running a joint candidacy in the French legislative election in June 2022.

The founding parties are the Parti Breton, the Basque Nationalist Party, Bastir Occitania, Prouvènço Nacioun and the Parti Lorrain. None of these parties has, or has ever had, any seats in the French National Assembly.

Pays Unis thus becomes the second federation of stateless nations’ and regional parties in France. Régions et Peuples Solidaires (R&PS) has been in existence since 1995, bringing together 14 parties and organizations, several of which are part of the European Free Alliance. In general, R&PS member parties have a more left-wing ideological orientation than those in Pays Unis.

The birth of Pays Unis comes precisely a month after the Parti Breton saw its August 2021 application to join R&PS rejected. The Parti Breton’s candidacy was vetoed, out of ideological and organizational reasons, by the Breton Democratic Union (UDB), a member of R&PS and the main Breton party in terms of votes.