Reunification of Normandy
The term reunification of Normandy ( French Réunification de la Normandie ) referred to the administrative union of the two former French regions of Basse-Normandie and Haute-Normandie . This goal was pursued by various political groups in France and achieved through the regionalization reform finally adopted by the French parliament on December 17, 2014, which was implemented on January 1, 2016. The new region has been called Normandy since then .
Historical background
Normandy has been one of the historical provinces of France since the times of the Viking marches through Europe in the 8th and 9th centuries . It retained its relative independence for a long time and, with William the Conqueror, came into close political ties with the neighboring Kingdom of England and remained fought over between the English and French crowns. After the Hundred Years War , it came under the direct rule of the French kings, but retained some of its special rights for several centuries. In the wake of the French Revolution of 1789, attempts were made to radically eliminate the old feudal ownership and rule. The whole country was administratively redistributed and initially organized into 83 newly created departments , some of which were deliberately not based on the old historical regional boundaries. Normandy was divided into five departments: Calvados , Eure , Manche , Orne and Seine-Maritime . This division of departments was also retained in post-revolutionary France, as it accommodated the bureaucratic-centralist form of government.
Since the 1950s, many of the old French regions, which, despite the département division, had continued to exist in public perception, were administratively revived in several laws. A major exception was Normandy, which did not re-emerge as one but in the form of two regions (an Eastern Upper and a Western Lower Normandy, Upper and Lower Normandy). Various reasons were given for this split: in the 1950s, the economy of eastern Normandy was more industrial and the majority of the electorate was politically left-wing, while western Normandy was agrarian and the majority politically conservative. The two main places Rouen and Caen both offered themselves as the central location of a region to be created.
Discussion about a possible unification of the two regions
The subject of the unification of the two regions came on the political agenda at irregular intervals. In unofficial opinion polls, a majority of residents were in favor of an association. The approval in Haute-Normandie was slightly higher than in Basse-Normandie. However, the topic was not a high priority for many respondents and there was great indifference to this question. The behavior of the voters in Upper and Lower Normandy hardly differed any more and the economic structures had largely aligned themselves with one another. Various political groups took a stand on this issue, transgressing the traditional right-left patterns. Many parties did not take a unified position on this issue. Only the Mouvement démocrate (bourgeois-liberal), the Nouveau Center (bourgeois-conservative), the Parti radical de gauche (left-liberal) and the Front National (radical right) spoke out in favor of unification.
A main argument of the proponents was a streamlining of the administration by breaking down double structures, an argument that is not undisputed. Most regional councils were in favor of unification in principle, but strictly rejected unification by decree from Paris without regional participation and formulated a large number of conditions to be met. Many functionaries in the previous regions feared losing their offices in a newly created unified region. There was also a traditional rivalry between the previous capital cities of Caen (Basse-Normandie) and Rouen (Haute-Normandie), which had about the same population and both wanted to achieve the title of a capitale régionale of a united Normandy. A compromise proposal envisaged making Le Havre , the largest city in Normandy, between Caen and Rouen , the administrative seat of united Normandy.
Among other things, the two regions joined together to form a joint interregional Normandy tourism association , which is based in Évreux , arguing, among other things, that the name "Normandie" is better marketed to tourists than the names "Basse-Normandie" or " Upper Normandy ”.
On June 2, 2014, President François Hollande proposed a redesign of the French regions. The number of regions should therefore be reduced from 22 to 14 by uniting existing regions. This also included the union of Upper and Lower Normandy. Ultimately, the two regions were merged into one region as part of the reform of the regions from January 1, 2016. The capital of the new region is Rouen.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Sandrine Chesnel: Caen ou Rouen: quelle capitale pour la future grande Normandie? L'Express, February 23, 2015, accessed March 23, 2015 (French).
- ↑ Comité Régional de Tourisme de Normandie (CRT Normandie)
- ↑ Cécile Dehesdin: Voici la carte of the 14 régions de la réforme territorial de Francois Hollande. L'Express, June 2, 2014, accessed March 23, 2015 (French).
- ↑ "reformers les territoires pour réformer la France". (No longer available online.) Élysée, June 2, 2014, archived from the original on December 29, 2014 ; accessed on March 23, 2015 (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.
- ↑ La carte à 13 régions définitivement adoptée. Le Monde, December 17, 2014, accessed March 27, 2015 (French).
