Regional elections in France 2015

Second ballot

 %

50

40

30th

20th

10

0

27.10

40.24

32.12

FN

right

left

Remarks:

^z The threshold clause is 10%.

The regional elections in France 2015 ( French Élections régionales françaises de 2015 ) took place on December 6th (first ballot) and on December 13th (second ballot).

Eligible to vote for the regional councils (Conseils régionaux) of the regions of the French Republic were a total of 44.6 million French in metropolitan France ( France métropolitaine ) and the French overseas holdings (France d'outre-mer) as well as in Corsica , Guyana and Martinique , where regional assemblies ( Assemblées) were chosen. It was the first election in France since the terrorist attacks on November 13, 2015 in Paris and the last before the 2017 French presidential election .

First ballot

 %

30th

20th

10

0

27.73%

26.65%

23.12%

FN

Rights ^b

Left ^c

Remarks:

^b The rights list brings together several right-wing parties.

^c The Left List brings together several left-wing parties.

^z The threshold clause is 10%.

Starting position

Election posters in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region

The party affiliations of the presidents of the regional councils before the election (still with the old regions): PS (19) PRG (1) DVG (2) LR (3)





On June 2, 2014, President François Hollande ( PS ) proposed a redesign of the French regions. Under Prime Minister Manuel Valls , the number of regions in the heartland was reduced from 22 to 13; the regulation came into force on January 1, 2016. The new bodies have more competencies than the old ones and should become economically stronger.

These elections are the first within the framework of the newly shaped regions according to Law No. 2015-29 (Loi relative à la délimitation des régions, aux élections régionales et départementales et modifiant le calendrier électoral) . This made a democratic re-legitimation necessary.

Electoral process

There are normally two rounds of voting. If none of the lists, on which women and men must be equally represented, achieve an absolute majority in a council in the first ballot on December 6, 2015, a second round will be due there on December 13, 2015.

Lists can be merged, provided that at least one participating list has received at least 10 percent of the votes ( threshold clause ) and each of the other parties at least 5 percent.

The party with the most votes also receives a bonus of 25 percent; the remaining 75 percent will be divided proportionally among all represented formations. The regional councils with their 1757 council members are elected for five years.

Regions

region	Council members
Île-de-France	209
Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes	204
Nouvelle-Aquitaine (Aquitaine-Limousin-Poitou-Charentes)	183
Hauts-de-France (Nord-Pas-de-Calais-Picardy)	170
Grand Est (Alsace-Champagne-Ardenne-Lorraine)	169
Occitania (Languedoc-Roussillon-Midi-Pyrénées)	158
Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur	123
Normandy	102
Bourgogne-Franche-Comté	100
Pays de la Loire	93
Brittany	83
Center-Val de Loire	77
Corsica
Reunion Island	45
Guadeloupe	41
Martinique
French Guiana
total	1757

Survey

Institute	Period	Respondents	NPA	FG	FG / EELV	EELV	PS / PRG	AEI	Divers gauche	UPR	Modem	UDI	LR	DLF	FN
Harris Interactive (PDF)	03/29/2015	4286	1 %	7%	-	7%	20%	-	-	-	5%	7%	25%	2%	22%
Odoxa (PDF)	24./25.09.2015	929	2%	7%	-	3%	23%	-	-	-	35%			3%	26%
Elabe	September 22/23, 2015	986	1.5%	6%	-	8.5%	22.5%	-	1.5%	-	1.5%	27%		3%	26%
OpinionWay (PDF)	October 07-08, 2015	993	2%	5%	3%	3%	23%	-	-	-	31%			2%	28%
Elabe	October 13-14, 2015	972	0.5%	5%	-	8.5%	23%	-	1.5%	-	0.5%	30%		3%	26%
TNS Sofres (PDF)	October 13-23, 2015	2200	1 %	6%	8th %		21%	2%	1 %	2%	27%			3%	28%
Ipsos (PDF)	October 30th - November 2nd, 2015	936	1.5%	5%	3.5%	3.5%	20%	-	1 %	-	32%			4%	26%
Harris Interactive (PDF)	November 17-19, 2015	1011	2%	5%	7%		26%	-	1 %	1 %	25%			5%	27%
OpinionWay	November 18-19, 2015	984	1 %	4%	-	9%	22%	-	-	-	-	28%		4%	30%
TNS Sofres (PDF)	November 20-23, 2015	1522	1.5%	4%	7%		22%		2%	1 %	27%			4%	29%

Results

First ballot

Results by region as well as Corsica ( collectivité territoriale ) and overseas territories (party with the highest number of votes after the first round of elections): PS EELV DVG Regionalists MoDem LR - UDI DVD FN The small boxes indicate the political parties (in addition to the party with the highest number of votes) in the respective The region qualified for the second round of voting, d. H. have passed the 10 percent hurdle. In the regions of Nord-Pas-de-Calais-Picardie and Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur , the socialists did not participate in the second ballot despite qualifying (crossed box).









Share of votes of the Front National in the first election round: > 40% > 30–40% > 20–30% > 10–20% > 0–10%






Results of the first ballot on December 6, 2015

Political direction / party		be right
		number	percent
	List Union de la gauche	5,019,723	23.12
	List Europe Ecologie Les Verts	832,468	3.83
	List Europe Ecology Les Verts et gauche	607.758	2.80
	List Front de gauche	541,409	2.49
	List Divers gauche	401,517	1.85
	List of Parti communiste français	337,390	1.55
	List Parti socialiste	62,070	0.29
	List Parti radical de gauche	4,227	0.02
Overall political left		7,806,562	35.96
	United Rights List	5,785,073	26.65
	List Debout la France	827.262	3.81
	List Divers droite	142,836	0.66
	Mouvement démocrate list	85,450	0.39
	List Les Républicains	42,346	0.20
	List Union des démocrates et indépendants	1,818	0.01
Moderate rights overall		6,884,785	31.72
	Front National List	6,018,672	27.73
	Extreme rights list	34,061	0.16
Extreme rights overall		6,052,733	27.88
	Extreme left list	334.140	1.54
	List of regionalists	273,431	1.26
	List of Union Populaire Républicaine (Various)	191,969	0.90
	Various other lists	36,960	0.15
	Green lists	127.451	0.59
Registered voters		45.298.641	100
Abstentions		22,689,039	50.09
Voters		22,609,602	49.91
Blank ballot papers		542.264	2.40
Invalid votes		359,307	1.59
Valid votes		21,708,031	96.01

Second ballot

Results by region as well as Corsica ( collectivité territoriale ) and overseas territories (party with the highest number of votes after the second election round): LR - UDI PS regionalists




Results of the second ballot on December 13, 2015

Party lists		be right		Seats
		number	percent	number	percent
	List Union de la droite	10.127.196	40.24	818	42.83
Moderate rights overall		10.127.196	40.24	818	42.83
	List Union de la gauche	7,263,567	28.86	520	27.23
	List divers gauche	746.294	2.97	144	7.54
	List Parti Socialiste	72,721	0.27	13	0.68
Left total		8,082,582	32.12	677	35.45
	Front National List	6,820,147	27.10	358	18.74
Extreme rights total		6,820,147	27.10	358	18.74
	Regional lists	136,380	0.54	57	2.98
Registered voters		45.293.603	100.00
Abstentions		18,838,040	41.59
Voters		26,455,563	58.41
Blank ballot papers		736,800	2.79
Invalid votes		552.458	2.09
Valid votes		25.166.305	95.13

Result per region

Grand Est

Results of the regional elections in the Grand-Est 2015

candidate		list	1st ballot		2nd ballot		Seats	+/-
			be right	%	be right	%
	Florian Philippot	FN	641 234	36.07	790 141	36.08	46	25th
	Philippe Richert	LR - UDI - Modem	459 212	25.83	1 060 029	48.40	104	45
	Jean-Pierre Masseret	PS ¹ - UDE - MDP	286 390	16.11	339 749	15.51	19th	70
	Sandrine Belier	EELV - PRG- MEI - GE	119 091	6.70			0
	Laurent Jacobelli	DLF	84 886	4.78			0
	Jean-Georges Trouillet	UL - AEI - PL - 57-PDM	84 127	4.73			0
	Patrick Peron,	FG - MRC - NGS	57 165	3.22			0
	Julien Wostyn	LO	26 347	1.48			0
	David Wentzel	UPR	19 171	1.08			0
Valid votes			1 777 643	95.49	2,189,919	95.49
Blank ballot papers			46 402	2.49	51 423	2.27
Invalid ballot			37 555	2.02	51 947	2.24
total			1,861,600	100	2,293,289	100	169
abstention			2 023 930	52.09	1,592,582	40.98
Voting			3 885 530	47.91	3,885,869	59.02

Reactions and analyzes

The election winner Marine Le Pen ( Front National ) after the first ballot in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais-Picardie region

Political party representatives from the moderate and left-wing spectrum expressed their shock after the first round of voting. In France there was a clear shift to the right. The Front National's calculation worked out. In particular, fear of Islamist terror determined the outcome of the election. The FN chairman Marine Le Pen had at least partially understood how to give her party a bourgeois paint and thus make it eligible for the bourgeois center. After the first ballot, ex-president Nicolas Sarkozy , the chairman of Les Républicains and political leader of the conservative-bourgeois camp, rejected strategic alliances with the socialists in the second ballot. Jean-Christophe Cambadélis , the chairman of the Parti socialiste , said that the Socialist Party was in the second round of voting in the two regions of Nord-Pas-de-Calais-Picardie and Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur , where the Front National was among its members two figureheads Marine Le Pen and her niece Marion Maréchal-Le Pen had been particularly successful, would not put up any candidates in the second ballot to prevent a victory for the FN.

In an interview on December 7, 2015, the Franco-German publicist and Green Party politician Daniel Cohn-Bendit complained that the so-called established parties did not have the courage to address their own issues, such as climate change , which is also highly relevant for France . Instead, they tried to imitate the Front National, among other things in the field of immigration policy. Prime Minister Manuel Valls' criticism of Chancellor Angela Merkel's policies is an example of this . France was hardly affected by the refugee crisis in Europe . Only three countries in Europe would have really taken in many refugees: Germany, Sweden and Austria. France only has a problem with a few thousand migrants in the Calais area who want to travel on to the United Kingdom. In this field, however, the Front National can hardly be beaten, and here the voters chose the original rather than the copy. In France, there is also an insufficient culture of compromise. Because of the majority vote, it is easier to give absolute majorities and the parties are not forced to work together. He advocates a grand coalition in France . The main goal must be to mobilize more than 50 percent of non-voters. In his opinion, it is unlikely, but no longer ruled out, that Marine Le Pen will win the 2017 presidential election . Prime Minister Manuel Valls said, referring to the Front National's performance in the first round of the election, “the danger of the extreme right is not averted”, so neither “relief nor triumphalism” is appropriate. He “will not forget the result of the first ballot”. Politics should not continue as before. Nicolas Sarkozy also described the first ballot as a “warning”. He said: "We cannot pretend that the French have not said anything"; “The French expect strong answers”. He is considering bringing forward the Republican primaries planned for November 2016: The French have yet to be convinced that “we have the right answers”.

Marine Le Pen described the outcome of the second round of elections as the result of “manipulation and incapacitation of voters”. She criticized the fact that Prime Minister Valls had warned of a "civil war" in the event of her party's election victory.

The outcome of the election in Corsica was also remarkable. There autonomist party lists ( Femu a Corsica in alliance with Corsica libera ) won 35% of the votes in the second ballot and thus 24 out of 51 seats (47.1) in the Corsican regional parliament. This is the best result that the Autonomists have ever achieved in elections and led to their first takeover.

Web links

Further content in the sister projects of Wikipedia:
	Commons	- multimedia content

• Official results of the first ballot on the website of the French Ministry of the Interior (French)

• Newspaper articles after the first ballot:
  • FAZ.net / Michaela Wiegel : Front National triumphs in regional elections in France
  • spiegel.de: France is moving to the right
  • zeit.de: The announced rise of Marine Le Pen
  • figaro.fr : Le FN en force, la droite à la peine, le PS au plus bas
  • lemonde.fr : Ce qu'il faut retenir du premier tour des élections régionales

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Elections régionales et des Assemblées de Corse, Guyane et Martinique 2015. France Entière - Résultats au one ^he tour. Ministry of Interior of the French Republic, accessed December 7, 2015 . 
2. ^ First round of regional elections in France started . Süddeutsche Zeitung , December 6, 2015.
3. ↑ www.senat.fr (Dossier) and www.assemblee-nationale.fr . Note: Map of the 13 new regions here .
4. ↑ Ministère de l'Intérieur
5. ↑ Ministère de l'Intérieur
6. ^ Press review on the shift to the right in France “The bill worked out”. tagesschau.de, December 7, 2015, accessed December 7, 2015 . 
7. ^ After the FN election success in France, pact against Le Pen - not with Sarkozy. tagesschau.de, December 7, 2015, accessed December 7, 2015 . 
8. ↑ Daniel Cohn-Bendit on elections in France "This is a terrible development". Deutschlandfunk, December 7, 2015, accessed on December 7, 2015 . 
9. ↑ ^{a b c} Great defeat for the Front National . FAZ, December 13, 2015.
10. ^ Corse: Nouvelle Assemblée: Results de la region au 2d tour. French Ministry of the Interior, accessed December 19, 2015 (French).