Referendum on the creation of an Alsatian local authority

Alsatian politicians ( Fabienne Keller , Philippe Richert and André Schneider ) at an election rally on March 2, 2013 on Kléber Square in Strasbourg

Election posters

Ballot on April 7, 2013

On April 7, 2013, a referendum took place in the two Alsatian departments of Haut-Rhin (Upper Rhine ) and Bas-Rhin (Lower Rhine ) on the creation of an Alsatian regional authority ( French Référendum sur la Collectivité territoriale d'Alsace ), a conseil d'Alsace, so to speak unique (United Alsatian Council). The voters had to decide on the question of whether a common administrative body should be established by merging the Conseil général du Bas-Rhin (General Council of Lower Alsace), the Conseil général du Haut-Rhin (General Council of Upper Alsace) and the Conseil régional d'Alsace (Alsace Regional Council ) should be formed.

background

The proclaimed goal of the initiators of the referendum was primarily to streamline the administration under the motto Unité, Efficacité et Proximité pour l'Alsace (“Unity, efficiency and closeness to the citizens for Alsace”) by dismantling alleged bureaucratic double structures. Merging the three assemblies and their administrations should save at least 20 million euros per year. Supporters of the association included the President of the Regional Council Philippe Richert (UMP) and the moderate Conservatives. The National Front , the ultra-left and the Strasbourg socialists spoke out against the project . Many critics of the project doubted that it would really lead to a significant streamlining of the administration and argue that one could also become more efficient within the existing structures. Some regional politicians also feared the dismantling or loss of administrative structures in their cities. In opinion polls before the vote, a majority of those questioned were in favor of the merger.

The possibility of merging administrative structures was created by an administrative reform law of December 16, 2010. The law stipulated that the affected population should be interviewed before such an administrative reorganization and that they had to agree with a majority of at least 50% of those who voted and at least 25% of those entitled to vote. In addition, all elected local authorities affected had to agree. The latter happened in Alsace. All three councils, both those of the region and those of the two departments, had supported the association's project by a majority in a Projet de déclaration du Congrès d'Alsace on December 1, 2011 in Colmar .

Positions of the parties

Of the major political groups in favor of accepting the referendum question:

• Union for a Popular Movement (UMP)
• Europe Ecology Les Verts
• Mouvement democrate
• Alsace d'abord
• Union des democrates et indépendants

Against were:

• Front National
• Front de gauche (essentially Parti de Gauche and Parti Communiste français )
• Nouveau Parti anticapitaliste
• Debout la République
• Mouvement republicain et citoyen
• Union popular republicaine

The Parti socialiste was tied .

Question of the referendum and results

Results by voting district. The significantly different results in Lower and Upper Alsace are astonishing. Only in two electoral districts (Molsheim and Strasbourg-Land) was the number of yes votes above 25% of the electorate.

The question that was asked was the following:

“Approvez-vous le projet de creation, en Alsace, d'une collectivité territoriale d'Alsace, par la fusion du Conseil régional d'Alsace, du Conseil général du Bas-Rhin et du Conseil général du Haut-Rhin? »

"Do you support the project to create an Alsatian local authority through the merger of the Alsatian Regional Council and the General Councils of Lower Alsace and Upper Alsace?"

- Direction de l'information légale et administrative : question of the Alsatian referendum of 7 April 2013

The vote on April 7, 2013 resulted in the following result:

Result by department

Department	Yes votes		Vote no		Turnout (percent) †
	number	in %	number	in %
Haut-Rhin	83,266	42.95%	104,846	55.74%	33.89%
Bas-Rhin	172.137	67.53%	82,777	31.37%	36.05%
Alsace as a whole	255.403	55.80%	187,623	41.00%	34.78%

† without the invalid votes

Results by canton

Department	Code (canton)	Canton ( Bas-Rhin and Haut-Rhin )	electoral legitimate	electoral participation	Invalid votes (in%)	Valid votes
						Yes (in%)	No (in%)
Bas-Rhin	1	Barr	14,602	40.80	3.32	69.16	30.84
Bas-Rhin	2	Benfeld	15,746	37.18	4.01	61.35	38.65
Bas-Rhin	3	Bischwiller	34,475	32.26	3.44	60.90	39.10
Bas-Rhin	4th	Bouxwiller	15.105	36.74	4.27	65.37	34.63
Bas-Rhin	5	Brumath	38,400	35.44	3.38	68.68	31.32
Bas-Rhin	6th	Druling	9,036	38.55	4.08	62.71	37.29
Bas-Rhin	7th	First stone	18,937	36.61	3.52	64.77	35.23
Bas-Rhin	8th	Geispolsheim	25,574	35.10	3.52	70.98	29.02
Bas-Rhin	9	Haguenau	37,571	35.41	3.22	67.90	32.10
Bas-Rhin	10	Hochfelden	13,152	45.32	3.56	68.17	31.83
Bas-Rhin	11	Lauterbourg	3,380	40.33	3.23	61.64	38.36
Bas-Rhin	12	Marckolsheim	17,846	41.09	3.63	59.63	40.37
Bas-Rhin	13	Marmoutier	9,733	41.57	3.36	66.06	33.94
Bas-Rhin	14th	Molsheim	30,763	37.99	3.06	69.74	30.26
Bas-Rhin	15th	Niederbronn-les-Bains	21,509	36.84	3.74	64.57	35.43
Bas-Rhin	16	Obernai	16,298	37.21	2.66	73.96	26.04
Bas-Rhin	17th	La Petite-Pierre	8,543	42.35	3.92	68.18	31.82
Bas-Rhin	18th	Rosheim	14,120	42.18	3.26	74.28	25.72
Bas-Rhin	19th	Hall	3,056	36.39	3.15	56.55	43.45
Bas-Rhin	20th	Sarre Union	11,360	34.18	4.33	62.88	37.12
Bas-Rhin	21st	Saverne	17,983	37.59	3.09	67.82	32.18
Bas-Rhin	22nd	Schiltigheim	17,495	25.72	2.58	65.69	34.31
Bas-Rhin	23	Schirmeck	10,532	31.64	4.11	58.37	41.63
Bas-Rhin	24	Schlettstadt	23,110	39.26	3.70	65.75	34.25
Bas-Rhin	25th	Seltz	8,554	42.09	4.75	55.12	44.88
Bas-Rhin	26th	Soultz-sous-Forêts	14,894	38.60	4.42	52.54	47.46
Bas-Rhin	27	Strasbourg 1	15,801	30.04	3.12	79.77	20.23
Bas-Rhin	28	Strasbourg 2	10,077	28.81	3.58	70.06	29.94
Bas-Rhin	29	Strasbourg 3	11,863	28.76	3.49	65.75	34.25
Bas-Rhin	30th	Strasbourg 4	12,704	33.83	2.58	78.62	21.38
Bas-Rhin	31	Truchtersheim	18,132	44.64	3.37	73.99	26.01
Bas-Rhin	32	Villé	8,887	44.33	3.98	65.37	34.63
Bas-Rhin	33	Wasselonne	17,432	39.97	2.74	71.89	28.11
Bas-Rhin	34	Weissenburg	12,942	37.66	3.80	61.59	38.41
Bas-Rhin	35	Word	10.170	43.43	4.35	67.72	32.28
Bas-Rhin	36	Strasbourg 5	13,670	34.24	2.56	77.30	22.70
Bas-Rhin	37	Strasbourg 6	21,421	19.51	2.87	63.69	36.31
Bas-Rhin	38	Strasbourg 7	14,038	27.58	3.00	71.72	28.28
Bas-Rhin	39	Strasbourg 8	15,316	29.02	3.51	67.89	32.11
Bas-Rhin	40	Strasbourg 9	15,784	22.61	3.22	63.58	36.42
Bas-Rhin	41	Strasbourg 10	11,918	22.81	2.50	64.73	35.27
Bas-Rhin	42	Graffenstaden	37,373	30.53	2.69	70.42	29.58
Bas-Rhin	43	Mundolsheim	35,492	37.50	3.13	73.63	26.37
Bas-Rhin	44	Bischheim	16,733	31.41	2.78	66.89	33.11
Haut-Rhin	1	Altkirch	18,837	40.94	3.00	45.88	54.12
Haut-Rhin	2	Andolsheim	19,541	45.93	3.13	46.72	53.28
Haut-Rhin	3	Cernay	27,612	35.83	2.80	42.14	57.86
Haut-Rhin	4th	Colmar North	15,549	33.89	2.52	27.71	72.29
Haut-Rhin	5	Dannemarie	10.131	41.36	3.37	38.16	61.84
Haut-Rhin	6th	Ensisheim	20,319	39.75	3.00	37.50	62.50
Haut-Rhin	7th	Ferrette	10,277	44.04	2.30	42.33	57.67
Haut-Rhin	8th	Guebwiller	15,079	35.67	3.01	44.63	55.37
Haut-Rhin	9	Habsheim	25,657	35.54	2.57	53.91	46.09
Haut-Rhin	10	Hirsingue	12,021	42.60	2.73	34.49	65.51
Haut-Rhin	11	Huningue	32,643	34.73	2.59	51.44	48.56
Haut-Rhin	12	Kaysersberg	12,968	44.24	3.21	52.15	47.85
Haut-Rhin	13	Sierentz	17,723	38.95	2.93	46.55	53.45
Haut-Rhin	14th	Lapoutroie	7,693	41.58	3.56	45.41	54.59
Haut-Rhin	15th	Masevaux	9,243	41.95	3.12	40.55	59.45
Haut-Rhin	16	Mulhouse North	14,765	20.61	3.58	40.59	59.41
Haut-Rhin	17th	Mulhouse South	26,239	33.95	2.89	51.58	48.42
Haut-Rhin	18th	Muenster	13,170	40.85	3.49	38.66	61.34
Haut-Rhin	19th	Neubreisach	11,457	43.52	3.15	38.27	61.73
Haut-Rhin	20th	Ribeauvillé	10,201	45.28	3.14	55.05	44.95
Haut-Rhin	21st	Rouffach	9.222	45.00	2.96	46.31	53.69
Haut-Rhin	22nd	Amarin	10.189	39.29	3.25	40.02	59.98
Haut-Rhin	23	Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines	7,098	32.08	4.35	57.25	42.75
Haut-Rhin	24	Soultz-Haut-Rhin	17,278	37.98	3.00	42.66	57.34
Haut-Rhin	25th	Thann	15.194	36.62	2.39	44.65	55.35
Haut-Rhin	26th	Wintzenheim	15,777	43.08	3.77	47.68	52.32
Haut-Rhin	27	Wittenheim	35,183	32.93	2.88	41.60	58.40
Haut-Rhin	28	Colmar South	28,011	38.43	2.58	36.30	63.70
Haut-Rhin	29	Mulhouse East	15,912	27.61	3.28	58.06	41.94
Haut-Rhin	30th	Mulhouse West	12,553	23.02	3.53	46.23	53.77
Haut-Rhin	31	Illzach	23,779	36.21	2.60	39.93	60.07

Overall, a majority of the Alsatian voters approved the question of the referendum, but it was rejected by a majority in Upper Alsace and due to the low turnout of 20.05% of those eligible to vote, the statutory quorum of at least 25% was not achieved. The administrative reform project had thus failed for the time being.

Analysis of the voting result

The most surprising aspect of the result was not the low turnout (which had been seen as a potential problem before the referendum), but the high level of opposition in Upper Alsace. In opinion polls before the vote, a majority of those surveyed there had also spoken out in favor of acceptance. The Strasbourg political scientist Richard Kleinschmager suspected various reasons for the failure of the referendum. On the one hand, many political groups appeared inconsistently, most clearly the socialists who had spoken out in favor of the referendum in Upper Alsace and against it in Lower Alsace. In Upper Alsace there was also concern that the economically more powerful north would dominate. In addition, there has long been a conservative tendency in France to cling to traditional administrative structures. So be for example, the regionalization referendum under Charles de Gaulle was rejected by a majority in 1969, as well as a regionalization referendum in Corsica 2003 . In addition, the tradition of regional self-government in France is still relatively young and unfamiliar. Although the regions were introduced in 1972, it was not until 1984 that the first regional council elections took place.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Réunion en Congrès de l'Assemblée régionale et des deux assemblées départementales. (PDF) (No longer available online.) Conseil Général du Bas-Rhin, December 1, 2011, archived from the original on December 13, 2013 ; Retrieved December 13, 2013 (French). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
2. ↑ ^{a b c} Bärbel Nückles: Alsatians decide on merger. Badische Zeitung, April 5, 2013, accessed on December 13, 2013 . 
3. ↑ ^{a b c} Actualités: En bref: Alsace: référendum le 7 Avril 2013 sur la collectivité unique. viepublique.fr, accessed on December 13, 2013 (French). 
4. ↑ Gehrard Franz: Alsatian vote on merger of departments. (No longer available online.) Saarbrücker Zeitung, April 5, 2013, formerly in the original ; Retrieved December 13, 2013 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.    
5. ↑ Alsatian for territorial merger. Badische Zeitung, March 8, 2013, accessed on December 13, 2013 . 
6. ↑ L'Alsace vers une collectivité unique. French Ministry of the Interior, accessed on December 13, 2013 (French, Article 29 of the Local Government Reform Act stated: "une région et les départements qui la composent peuvent […] demander à fusionner en une unique collectivité territoriale exerçant leurs compétences respectives. "). 
7. ^ Franck Buchy: Le FN défend une "Alsace française". Dernières Nouvelles d'Alsace, November 2013, accessed December 13, 2013 (French). 
8. ^ Communiqué du Front de gauche d'Alsace. (No longer available online.) December 22, 2012, archived from the original on April 20, 2012 ; Retrieved December 13, 2013 (French). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
9. ^ Tout est à nous (NPA), Collectivité Territoriale d'Alsace: un laboratoire du capitalisme. April 4, 2013, accessed December 13, 2013 (French). 
10. ↑ Collectivité unique d'Alsace: le 7 avril, NON, bien sûr! Mouvement républicain et citoyen , April 4, 2013, accessed on December 13, 2013 (French). 
11. ↑ Référendum en Alsace: Un "non" republicain et salutaire. Mouvement républicain et citoyen , April 7, 2013, accessed on December 13, 2013 (French). 
12. ↑ Référendum du 7 Avril: Carnet de bord des militants UPR sur place. Union Populaire Républicaine, March 31, 2013, accessed December 13, 2013 (French). 
13. ↑ Le PS divisé sur le référendum en Alsace. (No longer available online.) Agence Bretagne Presse, March 31, 2013, archived from the original on October 23, 2014 ; Retrieved December 13, 2013 (French). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
14. ↑ Référendum du 7 avril 2013 concernant l'Alsace. French Ministry of the Interior, April 16, 2013, accessed December 15, 2013 (French, with table of results). 
15. ^ Les résultats du référendum. Dernières Nouvelles d'Alsace, accessed December 25, 2013 (French). 
16. ^ Christian Bach: Un message adressé à Strasbourg? Les Dernières Nouvelles d'Alsace, May 7, 2013, accessed on 25 December 2013 (French). 
17. ↑ Référendum sur le Conseil unique d'Alsace du 7 avril 2013. Dernières Nouvelles d'Alsace, accessed on December 25, 2013 (French, detailed results by municipalities and cantons). 
18. ↑ ^{a b} Référendum du 7 avril 2013 (Alsace) - Résultats. (xls) Ministry of Interior of France, September 4, 2014, accessed March 16, 2015 (French). 
19. ↑ Undeniably a conservative reflex. (No longer available online.) Arte Journal, April 8, 2013, archived from the original on December 16, 2013 ; Retrieved December 15, 2013 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.