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National Front soars in regional election in France, meets resistance from Corsicans, Bretons
Socialists remain strong in Brittany, autonomists fail in 10% vote attempt · Corsican parties stand at 28%, hope to win second round
At the French level, Le Pen's stood at 28% of the total votes cast, one point ahead of centre-right Les Republicains (former UMP, 27%) and the Socialist Party (PS, 23%). Europe Ecology-Greens and the Left Front reached a combined 9% of the votes, while Debout La France -an Eurosceptic UMP splinter party- came close to 4%.
In the 2010 regional elections, the FN had got 11% of the votes in the first round. It was the fourth largest party then, behind the PS (29%), the UMP (26%) and the Greens (12%).
Ahead of the second round, scheduled for December 13th, some PS and Les Republicans leaders are voicing their support to the withdrawal of non-FN lists that yesterday came third. The goal of such a move would be to prevent the FN from reaching an easy victory in the second round in several regions. This would be the case for the new Eastern macroregion of Alsace-Lorraine-Champagne-Ardennes, where the PS at the state level is asking its regional candidate Jean-Pierre Masseret to withdraw from the election race in order to help Les Republicans leader Philippe Richert to defeat the FN next Sunday.
Stateless nations' parties
Corsica. As expected, the three Corsican-only lists achieved a remarkable result as they stood at 28% of the votes in the Assembly of Corsica election. Pro-autonomy candidate Gilles Simeoni (17.6%) asked for support in the second round from the pro-independence list led by Jean-Guy Talamoni (7.7%), as Simeoni believes that such unity could help his party win for the first time ever the second round of the Corsican election. This attempt might nevertheless prove unfruitful if pro-French parties merge in just a couple of lists -they ran the first round in a number of different candidacies- for the second round. Current Corsican president Paul Giacobbi (pro-French centre-left,18.4%) holds sway as his list yesterday narrowly emerged as the largest party in the first round. The National Front (10.6%) achieved its best historical result in Corsica, but still remains well behind the figures it obtained in many other territories.
Brittany. Socialist Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian led his party to a clear victory (35% of the votes) well ahead of Les Republicains (23%) and the FN (18%). Christian Troadec’s pro-autonomy list did not achieve its stated goal to clear the 10% threshold that gives the right to advance into the election’s second round. With just 6.7% of the votes, the Breton Democratic Union-Movement Brittany Progress coalition will thus stay out of the election race. Troadec announced it will not be merging with any other list. Two pro-independence lists stood at 0.6% (Breizhistance) and 0.5% (Breton Party).
Alsace. In the new macroregion of Alsace-Lorraine-Champagne-Ardenne, the FN took yesterday a wide margin over the other lists, with 36% of the votes, (26% for Les Republicains and 16% for the PS). A list led by Alsatian pro-autonomy Unser Land Party stood at 4.7%. If results in Alsace alone are taken into account, the pro-autonomy list got a landmark result: 10% of the votes in Bas-Rhin and 12.6% in Haut-Rhin. But those figures will not even allow the Alsatian autonomists to return one single Regional Council member.
Occitania / North Catalonia. In the new Occitan-Catalan macroregion resulting from the merger of former Midi-Pyrenees and Languedoc-Roussillon regions, the National Front too emerged as the largest party (32% at the macroregional level, and 42% specifically in Northern Catalonia), ahead of the Socialists (24%) and Les Republicains (19%). The Greens’ list supported by pro-autonomy Occitan Party came fourth (10%). It is expected that this candidacy, led by Gerard Onesta, will merge with the Socialists, seeking to jointly win the election in the second round.
As previously mentioned, in Provence the National Front achieved a landmark result (40% of the votes) and is well placed to win in the second round too. In Aquitaine-Limousin-Poitou-Charentes it is the PS who leads the race (30%, with Les Republicains placed second (27%). The FN came third (23%).
(Nationalia will devote another article this week to results and expectations in French non-European territories that are electing their councils and assemblies too.)