The Alsatian territory has linguistic and cultural features which differ from those attributed to France and Germany, the two states between which Alsace is located. From a political point of view, though, reality is incontrovertible. Alsace has never been fully independent in the last centuries; however, it has enjoyed certain degree of autonomy.

Alsace fell under German control in 1870, right after the war between France and Prussia. Assimilation policies by Germany and subsequent Alsatian demands of autonomy were common until the approval, in 1910, of the Constitution of Alsace-Lorraine (the latter, another disputed territory). However, the legal text was only in force until 1914 -the year in which First World War broke out - since Alsace passed into French hands when the conflict ended.

Alsace's status has remained unchanged until nowadays, except for the period 1940-1945 during which the territory was occupied by the Nazi regime. Back into French administration, Alsace found it difficult to demand autonomy, so it became the French region of Alsace, with a Regional Council with very few legislative powers and divided into Upper and Lower Alsace.

As in Corsica, there is currently a political demand to remove the two departments in which Alsace is divided and establish a single assembly. Such possibility is closer than ever to become true after that a few months ago French president Nicolas Sarkozy spoke in favor of a territorial reorganization for the regions that wished so. Alsatian parties are currently working towards this administrative reform.

The party system in Alsace does not differ much from that of other regions in France. The strongest parties are the Socialist Party (12 seats in the last elections in coalition with The Greens) and the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP, 27 seats in coalition with the Union for the French Democracy), followed by the National Front (8 seats). In 2004 elections, the first party of Alsatian-only allegiance was Alsace d'abord, which gained a 9% of the votes but failed to get any seat. This party is frequently linked to far-right political leanings and has often obtained better results than the National Front.

One of the historical parties in favour of self-government for Alsace has been the Union for the Alsatian People, founded in 1988. It is a member of the Regions and Solidarity Peoples coalition in France, and a member of the European Free Alliance in the European Parliament. It gave support to the list Europe-Ecologie in the last European elections, which came third in France slightly behind the Socialist Party and returned one Corsican nationalist deputy in the European Parliament.

Photo: François Schnell.