Euskal Herria Bai growth highlights role of stateless nations in French departmental election
Basque pro-autonomy candidates get 16% of the votes in the Northern Basque Country, make it into the second round in 5 constituencies · MBP, UDB to seek victory in five Breton cantons · Femu a Corsica expects to secure three seats · Catalan Unity candidate leads vote in Northern Catalan canton
The French Republic yesterday held the first round of the departmental elections, in which the membership of the departmental councils of France's 100 departments will be chosen. All departments are divided into cantons. Each canton elects two department councilors, and both must hail from the same, two-member list -thus voters cannot pick one candidate from one list and another candidate from a different list.
Starting from this election, each list must be made up by a male candidate and a female candidate, the so-called binôme. In some cases, both candidates belong to the same party, but in other cases they hail from different parties, thus turning the binômes into de facto coalitions. If, in a given canton, no binôme reaches 50% of the votes, a second round is held -they are schedules for Sunday 29th.
Below you will find a brief review of the results of the parties of the stateless nations in the European territories of the French Republic -elections were also held in Guadeloupe, Reunion and Mayotte.
In the Northern Basque Country, Euskal Herria Bai (EH Bai) caught a great deal of attention after securing 16% of votes. Pro-autonomy candidates will be present in five cantons in the second round. In one of them (Errobi-Aturri/Nive-Adour), EH Bai yesterday won by a large margin: 37.9% of the votes, 21 points ahead of the National Front. Both parties will be contesting the Errobi-Aturri seats on Sunday. The establishment of a Basque supramunicipal body (EPCI) is one of the main demands by EH Bai.
Another pro-autonomy force, the Basque Nationalist Party, ran its own binômes in four departments, which stood between 2% and 4.3% of the votes, with no option to contest the second round.
In Northern Catalonia, Catalan parties CDC and Catalan Unity (UC) supported centre-right UMP-UDI binômes. Out of 17 Northern Catalan cantons, the lists supported by UMP-UDI-Catalan forces received the most votes in 4, including the Aglí Valley (Fenolleda/North Roussillon), where UC candidate Marie-Claude Conte-Grégoire ran in coalition with André Bascou (UMP). The National Front (FN) became the largest party in 7 cantons, while the coalition of socialists and communists was the strongest force in 6 cantons. All departmental councilors will be decided in the second round.
In Brittany, the Breton Democratic Union (UDB), Movement Brittany Progress (MBP) and the Breton Party (PB) were running Breton party-only lists. Out of them, the MBP got the best result as its leader Christian Troadec received the most votes in the canton of Carhaix (35.56%) but the party will need to wait until the second round to confirm this victory. An MBP-UDB coalition in the canton of Gourin was also the strongest list there (25.59%) and will seek to achieve victory in the second round facing a right-wing coalition. Furthermore, the UDB will be contesting another three seats in coalition with the Socialist Party in three cantons of the Côtes-d'Armor department.
In Corsica, the elections were marked by a feeling of uselessness, since one month ago the French National Assembly approved on first reading the creation of a joint territorial collectivity for the island. This will lead to the merger of the current two departmental councils (Haute-Corse and Corse-du-Sud) and the Regional Council in order to establish a new Corsican assembly.
In any case, the UMP yesterday received the most votes in Corse-du-Sud, while a Paul Giacobbi-supported French center-left coalition won in Haute-Corse. Pro-independence party Corsica Libera was running 12 binômes -one of them a coalition with pro-autonomy Femu a Corsica (FC). None of Corsica Libera's candidates got elected or made it into the second round, albeit the pro-independence party got more than 20% of the votes in three cantons. In some Haute-Corse cantons, FC ran in coalition with the French centre-right. This way, FC yesterday secured a seat for Bastia (Anne Avenoso) and could be obtaining two more in the second round, in Bastia too (Vanina Le Bomin and Joseph Gandolfi).
In Alsace, Unser Land pro-autonomy party ran binômes in 21 cantons. The party achieved shares of vote between 5% and 25%, nevertheless it failed to advance into the second round in any of them. Unser Land candidates Hervé and Hugette Ott stayed close to their goal in the canton of Saint-Louis, where they just lacked 25 votes to place themselves second, beating the National Front.
In Occitania, the pro-Occitan Bastir! platform lent its support to several binômes, mainly made up of centrist or leftist parties, including the Occitan Party. This party got one of its most remarkable results in the canton of Emblavez-et-Meygal where Gustau Aliròl, running in a joint coalition with the Socialists, won 15.45% of the votes, which nevertheless were not enough to advance to the second round.
Note: Original article at Nationalia, brought here thanks to Creative Commons licence.
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