Liam redux

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Modest left breakthrough in France – sort of

The British left gets really excited when three council candidates break the magic 5% barrier. Here is a report from the LCR’s site on yesterday’s local elections. Thanks to comrade Babelfish for the translation. I’ve tried to render some of the political terms as best I can but I’m open to correction for phrases like…

Liam
3–4 minutes

The British left gets really excited when three council candidates break the magic 5% barrier. Here is a report from the LCR’s site on yesterday’s local elections. Thanks to comrade Babelfish for the translation. I’ve tried to render some of the political terms as best I can but I’m open to correction for phrases like “sans engagement à une solidarité de gestion”. Anyway you get the idea. It’s worth bearing in mind that France has a population roughly the same as England’s and that the LCR has about 2000 members.

Of 200 lists presented or supported by the LCR, 109 of them got more than 5% of the vote and 29 more than 10%.  Among other examples:

  • 17,59% with Aureilhan (65),
  • 15% with Quimperlé (29),
  • Sotteville-the-Rouen (76) it is 14,8%,
  • 13,8% in Clermont-Ferrand (63),
  • 10,4% with Louviers (27),
  • 10,38% with Lormont (33).

71candidates were elected. Discussions are in hand, in several cities, for a technical fusion, without commitment for joint lists with the PS or PCF, in order to respect the democratic choice of the voters in the first round. Thus, to the left’s push is added a breakthrough of the lists supported by the LCR . They translate as a rejection of the liberal policies at the local and national level. Bad housing, the privatization of public services, the scandal of the cost of water when management deals with private, the wage rigour, the dismissals which fall into all the areas feed a will of social resistance and policy which was translated on the electoral level by a vote for the lists supported by the LCR. The rejection of the liberal policy by the population is such as it has constrained N Sarkozy to be held in-outside election campaign which saw the lists of the parliamentary majority getting rid of the UMP initials, the best example being the town of Bordeaux. These results are an encouragement for the social fights which will continue to develop. Thus, concerning the defense of the system of retirement, after the success of the manifestations of March 6 organized by the confederal unions of pensioners, the manifestations of March 29 will be an important appointment to be opposed to lengthening duration of contributions. March 10, 2008.

Sur 200 listes présentées ou soutenues par la LCR, 109 d’entre elles dépassent 5% et 29 sont au-dessus de 10%. Quelques exemples parmi d’autres : 17,59% à Aureilhan (65), 15% à Quimperlé (29), à Sotteville-les-Rouen (76) c’est 14,8%,13,8% à Clermont-Ferrand (63), 10,4% à Louviers (27), 10,38% à Lormont (33). D’ores et déjà, ces listes ont obtenu 71 élu-e-s. Des discussions sont en cours, dans plusieurs villes, pour une fusion technique, sans engagement à une solidarité de gestion, avec des listes PS ou PCF, afin de respecter le choix démocratique des électeurs au 1er tour. Ainsi, à la poussée de la gauche s’est ajoutée une percée des listes soutenues par la LCR. Elles traduisent un rejet des politiques libérales au niveau local et national. Le mal-logement, la privatisation de services publics, le scandale du coût de l’eau quand la gestion est dévolue au privé, la rigueur salariale, les licenciements qui tombent dans toutes les régions alimentent une volonté de résistance sociale et politique qui s’est traduite sur le plan électoral par un vote pour les listes soutenues par la LCR. Le rejet de la politique libérale par la population est tel qu’il a contraint N. Sarkozy à se tenir en-dehors de la campagne électorale laquelle a vu les listes de la majorité parlementaire se débarrasser du sigle UMP, le meilleur exemple étant la ville de Bordeaux. Ces résultats sont un encouragement pour les luttes sociales qui vont continuer à se développer. Ainsi, concernant la défense du système de retraite, après le succès des manifestations du 6 mars organisées par les unions confédérales de retraités, les manifestations du 29 mars seront un rendez-vous important pour s’opposer à l’allongement de la durée de cotisations. Le 10 mars 2008.

23 responses to “Modest left breakthrough in France – sort of”

  1. Phil Avatar
    Phil

    That’s a tricky one. I think the closest you can get in tolerably idiomatic English would be “without engagement* to a solidarity of gestion”.

    *Literally ‘engagement‘

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  2. PhilW Avatar
    PhilW

    It would be interesting to have some more details on these places with very large votes. I’m vague on the strucures of French local politics.

    These local elections were for communes, of which there are about 36,000, so their average size must be about 1,500 only. So I presume there were also elections for a higher tier, or is Clermont-Ferrand (pop 140,000) a commune as well? The other places seem to have populations of about 10,000-20,000 and are “towns” or communes. It makes sense for the LCR to stand in places with larger populations, so maybe some communes are very big?

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  3. Chris Brooks Avatar
    Chris Brooks

    Liam,

    I have tidied your translation a little at:
    http://internationalviewpoint.org/spip.php?article1445

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  4. Pete Shield Avatar
    Pete Shield

    PhilW- structure of local authorities

    Just to clarify Sundays vote was for two different levels- communes- villages, towns and cities (which are often broken down into neighborhoods- like Paris’s arrondisments- which each have their own Mayors as well as the Mayor of Paris as a whole), and Departmental Cantons.

    Each commune/ area is part of a Canton, and at a Cantonal level you get one elected member to the Department- Departments are really the most important level of local government, more funding more responsibilities. Cantonals are much harder for the smaller parties to win, because of the much wider electoral base. The PCF for example hold two in very working class area Departments, and has a small number of Departmental delegates spread throughout the country- only a half the cantonal seats were up for grabs this time.

    There is one more level of local government- Regions, which are less powerful, but good public profile platforms.

    This is how it works in my area. Maisons- total voting population 53 has 9 councillors. It is part of the Canton of Tuchan, total cantonal population around 15,000. Tuchan has one delegate to the Aude Department. The Aude is one Department in the Languedoc –Roussillon Region- the others being the Pyrenees – Oriental, Herault, Lozere and the Gard.

    It has taken me 8 years to work it out- not just the different levels but who exactly has what responsibilities, and powers. Needless to say there are overlapping powers, constant fighst between different levels- and the central goverment keep changing the rules- and the way elections are held- as both the PS and the UMP want to move to a two party system.

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  5. andyinswindon Avatar
    andyinswindon

    Pete

    Do you have a breakdown of the PCF results in these elections, and any reactions?

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  6. Nick Wright Avatar
    Nick Wright

    In the current French municipal election – in communes of more than 9,000 electors – 59 communist mayors were elected in the first round and in the second round next Sunday another 11 communists are in the lead. To be elected in the first round a candidate (or list must) win 50%+1 or more
    In cities of 9,000 to 30,000 the PCF won 42 elections including three taken from the right.
    In cities of 30,000 to 100,000 the PCF had 28 outgoing mayors and won 17 in the first round including Dieppe taken sensationally from the right.
    Other cities are Arles, Martigues, Echirolles, St-Martin d’Hères, Vaulx-en-Velin, Vénissieux, Bagneux, Gennevilliers, Nanterre, Bobigny, Sevran, Stains, Tremblay-en-France, Champigny, Fontenay-sous-Bois , and Ivry.
    In eleven large cities the is in the lead for the second round. These include Le Havre and Nimes

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  7. Pete Shield Avatar
    Pete Shield

    The Le monde site has a pretty good results listing-http://www.lemonde.fr/web/sequence/0,2-987706,1-0,0.html

    To add to Nick comments what makes it interesting is that between 2001 and now the PCF has not had a mayor in a town over 100,000 population- on Sunday we are heading the list in two such towns- Nimes and La Havre- talk about geographical extremes.

    However on the down side, the PS have strongly attacked the PCF in the Department of St Denis- which the PCF have hald since its creation in 1965- although we represent the working class towns the increased Parisian house prices have gentrified some areas of this Northern Parisian Department allowing the PS to gain the initialitive. It will be a real blow to loose one of the two departments we manage.

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  8. Pete Shield Avatar
    Pete Shield

    http://www.lemonde.fr/municipales-cantonales/article/2008/03/11/les-primaires-compliquent-les-fusions-de-liste-pcf-ps_1021429_987706.html

    This is quite an interesting look at the variety of relationships between the PCF, PS and Greens and how it differs from place top place- particularly bitter in St Denis.

    The LCR it appears what a ‘nominal’ fusion whereby in the twons where they got respectable votes they want to be on the United Left list but not support the ruling majority if elected, its a way of trying to get some seats without being tied up with any responsibilities like actually doing anything for the voters who elected them. The PS it seems would prefer to do deals with the centrist Modem instead.

    I paricularly liked Pierre-François Grond quote- Le PS nous barre la route des conseils municipaux pour préférer des discussions avec le MoDem. C’est scandaleux”, . “Its scandalous that the PS is blocking our road to councils prefering to do a deal with the Modem.

    Pierre -Francois, hold on a second, you denounce the PCF for doing a deal with the PS in some elections to gain seats,and yet here you are denouncing the PS for not doing a deal with you- expressions about pots and kettles sping to mind.

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  9. Mark P Avatar
    Mark P

    The issue in dispute between the LCR and PCF , as Pete well knows, is the content of prospective deals with the PS.

    The PCF is willing to be the junior partner in what are essentially PS administrations and does deals on that basis – the PS grants them seats, the PCF then votes for PS policies. The cynical amongst us might be reminded of various patronage arrangements. The LCR wants deals for the second round which involve no commitment to vote together after councillors are elected.

    This is, perhaps, a rather naive position as the PS are hardened political operators who have little obvious reason to want left wingers outside of their rigid control on the councils. But it is at least more principled than the PCF whose oh so responsible idea of “doing something for the voters who elected them” is to help the PS administer neo-liberalism.

    There is little chance of the mainstream PCF breaking from this utterly dependent relationship with the PS. It has an apparatus and a layer of elected officials wildly out of proportion to that which its independent electoral strength could support and it won’t do anything to risk that. So instead it slowly decomposes, every year rotting a little more, every year helping the PS to screw over the workers a little more too.

    It is perfectly legitimate for the LCR to point out that the PS prefers to make arrangements with right wing parties rather than put left wingers who won’t do as they are told onto councils. The PCF are different to the LCR in terms of deal making precisely because they will do exactly what they are told.

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  10. Nick Wright Avatar
    Nick Wright

    Mark P has a hopelessly mechanical view of the situation. Firstly in very many towns the PCF won in the first round. That means they mostly won on their own without relying on PS support and often against the PS. In the second round there will be great pressure for anti right wing unity (republican discipline as it is known)but the PS may prefer to deal with Modem and rely on traditional discipline from communist voters.
    Secondly, of course as in inevitable in a very fluid situation, the PCF is internally divided (as is the PS, the Greens and the LCR). In Beziers for instance one communist was elected in alliance with the LCR and one in alliance with the PS. In other towns the LCR has slipped quietly into the PCF for whatever reasons…
    In some areas good relations exist all round and the PCF is the main motor for such diverse left lists. In others middle class pressure, both within the PCF and from without, leaves both party militants and electors a bit confused.

    There is no chinese wall between PS voters and PCF or between people who vote for the far left. The main feature from this election is that the PCF is consolidated as the ‘third force’ in French electoral politics thus aligning electoral results with its social weight and considerable presence in local life and cutting the ground away from the PS leaders who want a deal with Modem. What has also emerged is that there is a constituency both for alliance with the PS and for a more trenchant opposition to the PS accommodation with ‘liberalism’.

    The LCR, an engaging bunch whose political style is much more amenable than most British trotskyists, have a real constituency but one to an extent created by the PCF’s damaging departures from its traditional role.

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  11. Mark P Avatar
    Mark P

    Nick W is hopelessly optimistic about the future of French Stalinism if he seriously imagines that the PCF is or will become a third force in French electoral politics. This is a party that got 2% in the Presidential elections. It does better in the locals generally but on this occasion looks likely to end up losing control of one the two departments it ran along with losing a handful of Mayors overall.

    This isn’t a massive setback for the PCF, as compared to the last elections, but neither is it the start of a revival.

    There is nothing “mechanistic” about my reading of the situation by the way. The PS is so right wing that in some places it may prefer an alliance with the parties of the right to one with its suitably tame left vassals. This is a useful detail to know, but it doesn’t remotely undermine my point. Neither does the undoubted fact that some PCF militants would prefer to be something other than vassals of the PS. In fact that was implicit in my post.

    But the point remains that the PCF’s layer of elected officials and bloated bureaucracy is dependent on PS patronage and so the mainstream PCF will not of its own accord abandon its role as junior partners in administering neo-liberalism. To do so, to stand on their own two feet or in alliance with the wider left, they would have to accept a significant reduction in their apparatus.

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  12. Pete Shield Avatar
    Pete Shield

    Mark P,
    Well if the Ps saw the PCF as some docile in house left that they could boss around maybe they wouldn’t have stood against us. The reality is of course a lot more complex, the PCF does work with the PS in a number of local governments, as we should when there is a good PS Mayor or the area will fall to the right if we don’t. We also work with Greens, anarchists, Trotskyites of various different guises, syndicalists, Alternatifs.

    Indeed in the cantonals in St Denis there were 5 good socialist on the PCF list, if you can read the French of the article I posted on the PS/PCF/Green/LCR discussions for the second tour you see the antagonisms within the PS on the second tour for St Denis. In essence they want the PCF to ditch the PS candidates on our list before the PS will talk about a united left list.

    And of course, you are right, the LCR can demand that the PCF and PS add their candidates to the United Left list, and they can claim that their candidates will have no loyalty to the list that got them elected. But they can hardly cry foul when the PS/PCF/PRG/MRG/ Verts decide that the LCR electoral base is not a disciplined one and will, if it votes in the second round vote for the left anyway so they can do without the ear ache of having an LCR on their lists.

    Of course the Ps would rather do without having the ear ache of having PCF council members, which is what the turn to Modem is about in places. But that hardly fits your idea that the PCF is some sort of PS poodle. The PCF has made may mistakes in its relationships with the PS, particularly at a national government level- stayed on government too long, been associated with shifts to the right- all of this is true, and the people it has damaged the most has been the PCF.

    Nowadays the very fact that the PS is attacking us left right and centre the PCF is a much more independent, albeit diminished force. But the fundamental difference between our election strategy and the Leagues, and LO and the PT (Where it has a strategy) is that the PCF is committed to delivery the best local government it can to its working class electors. Here in the Aude you can tell if you are in a communist influenced village, because we have fought village by village with the postal workers to keep the post offices open, every communist influenced village in the Aude still has a school, public transport for the elderly, three times the social housing stock of equivalent PS villages. We work with the good elements of the PS as well as our own departmental, regional, national and European elected members to deliver services to our electors. It was the PCF would ran the campaigns to keep minimum services at local hospitals, the PCF and CGT who campaign to keep a minimum local train services, and our Regional Vice Presidents who pushed the Socialist majority into continuing to fund it.

    That commitment to delivering services to our base is why I think the PCF vote is holding up at a local level despite the attacks from the PS.

    Mark, in terms of elected members we are the third largest political party in France, and in terms of active card carriers we are the third party as well.

    It may not be a revival but at least at a local level maybe we are holding our own and growing.

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  13. Pete Shield Avatar
    Pete Shield

    Mark, I would be interested in your definition of the wider left, can you name some organisations, and give your estimations of their strength that you think the PCF is not actively enguaging with that we should be in case I have missed something.

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  14. andyinswindon Avatar
    andyinswindon

    It is very confusing in these blog discussions that “Mark P” the Irish based Millie uses the same moniker as “Mark P” the former CP member and Marxism Today supporter.

    This is an important discussion, because for all their talk of building a broad radical politial party, the LCR discount the actually existing PCF. And as Pete Shield explains, the PCF on the ground represents a significant left social democratoc base, and real gains that needs to be defended.

    What is more, in contemporary Western European societies you cannot just leap over the question of coalition. You cannot hope to build a mass party on the basis of never under any circumstances entering a coalition, because that form of abstentionism will also be punished by supporters who would rather have some small gains today, rather than always jam tomorrow.

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  15. Chris Brooks Avatar
    Chris Brooks

    Of course no-one, and certainly not the LCR would rule out coalitions *with progressive parties*. However, the idea of a coalition with a neo-liberal party like the PS is quite different – and can be opposed on those grounds.

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  16. Nick Wright Avatar
    Nick Wright

    Mark P (the Trotskyist) will find it difficult to discover a left much wider than the real coalitions that run much of French local administration and which include the greens, all kinds of independent progressive citizens, many PS members and actvists from the anti-liberal movement. In almost every case the organisational basis is the PCF which is both rooted in working class communities and possessed of a big apparatus. The PCF apparatus is not the gift of the PS but the product of generations of struggle. We should be so lucky.
    The very low PCF vote in the presidentials was very clearly a result of most voters deciding to eliminate the possibility of Segolene Royal being forced out of the second round and thus giving voters the choice of two right wing candidates. Another factor was the egotism of the leadership of the mostly Paris based groups in the anti-liberal coalition and their resistance to the idea of a PCF candidate to represent this coalition. It is arguable that the decision of the local committees to endorse PCF leader Marie George Buffet was not the best one to win the widest vote but if not her who better?
    Do the maths. Count the votes. No other force has the organisational strength on the ground and in the workplaces, the number of councillors (about 20,000) or the political tradition in the working class to be the third force in French life.
    That is not to say that the PCF has all the answers or has even resolved its internal problems but this daft idea that the PCF is going to vanish or decay into insignificance must be the most mechanical and undialectical wishful thinking since people entered the Labour Party to change it from within.
    (To digress, why do contributors to blogs have so little confidence in their ideas that they prefer to advance them from behind a nom de plume?)

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  17. Mark P Avatar
    Mark P

    To take a few points from the lengthy responses to my last post:

    1) It is arguable that the decision of the local committees to endorse PCF leader Marie George Buffet was not the best one to win the widest vote but if not her who better?

    It is strange to have this question presented as if events had not definitively answered it. Besancenot got twice the vote of Buffet despite having a much weaker machine behind him. Bove got closer to Buffet than she got to Besancenot despite having essentially no campaign apparatus at all. With serious resources behind him it is impossible to imagine him failing to beat the tally achieved by Buffet.

    2) The very low PCF vote in the presidentials was very clearly a result of most voters deciding to eliminate the possibility of Segolene Royal being forced out of the second round.

    This is certainly one element of it. But let’s be clear, in the Presidential election before that the PCF got just over 3% and finished behind both the LCR and LO. That is, the fall last time out wasn’t some big abberation but fits into a pattern of very low votes on a national level and a longer pattern of slow decline. The fact that the decline at a local level has been slower is undoubted but there too we are talking about a long slow decline.

    3) The PCF apparatus is not the gift of the PS but the product of generations of struggle.

    You are, deliberately I assume, confusing the issue of how the PCF developed its apparatus with the far from identical issue of how it has maintained the remaining rump of it.

    The local government base and the apparatus were built over a lengthy period but they have been slowly eroding for another lengthy period. The only things propping up large parts of it are alliances which make the PCF subservient to the PCF in local (or occasionally national) government. I am almost amused to hear this being denied – the desire to preserve this apparatus at all costs is the core issue determining internal debates in the PCF.

    They are faced with a choice between continuing the slow decline or accepting a big short term hit in terms of the apparatus and some chance of rebuilding on the other. The bureaucrats will always choose the first option. That doesn’t mean that everyone in the PCF would make the same choice but it does mean that the mainstream PCF will.

    This is an important discussion, because for all their talk of building a broad radical politial party, the LCR discount the actually existing PCF.

    There are many things wrong with the LCR, but this isn’t one of them.

    They don’t ignore the existence of the PCF. But they are aware of the fact I outlined just above. The PCF will not be convinced to break from acting as a junior assistant to the PS. Preserving the apparatus is the first, second and third priority of the bureaucrats who control the CP. The only alliances that can be formed with them are ones on the terms of the PCF, which means subordination to the PS. Talk of a national alliance in current circumstances on some other basis is a fantasy and talk of waiting for the PCF to be convinced is an argument to wait forever.

    So, a correct approach to the PCF is to argue with their rank and file for an alliance based on left wing principles and seek to win over minority currents. That’s all that’s possible at the moment in that regard. In fact the best way to influence the thinking of the mainstream of the PCF is to demonstrate in practice that there is room for a force on the left that is independent of the PS.

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  18. Chris Brooks Avatar
    Chris Brooks

    >>The very low PCF vote in the presidentials was very clearly a result of most voters deciding to eliminate the possibility of Segolene Royal being forced out of the second round.

    Consider the lower support for the Front Nationale, there was little prospect of that happening.

    Mark P is right to point out that the LCR certainly does engage with the LCR, and approached need to vary in correspondence with the differences in the PCF. What comrades are opposing is that the LCR refuses to coalesce with the PCF *and the PS*.

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  19. Nick Wright Avatar
    Nick Wright

    The LCR, LO – and to a certain extent – Bove votes are from people who are, at this stage, positively against the PS. The PCF vote includes some like this and some who switch according to circumstances, some to the PS and some to the gauchistes. Gauchiste opportunism lies precisely in their frivolous celebration of their place in the ghetto– this might be best described as the mirror image of PCF electoral opportunism. Right wing opportunism always finds is antithesis in dogmatism – and vice versa.
    The decline in the PCF vote is substantially the product of the late capitalist dissolution of its industrial working class base and the fallout from the collapse of the socialist states. Not to mention the Mitterand strategy which essentially ‘contaminated’ the PCF in government. Whether it is able to win a bigger base this side of a catastrophic capitalist crisis is precisely the issue underlying this discussion but to describe it as a ‘rump’ is to devalue the militancy and engagement of its members and to send us deep into our dictionaries to find an adjective to adequately describe the social weight of its ultra left critics.

    The problem for the gauchiste engagement with electoral politics and their partial emergence from sect politics is that they too need to attract PS and PCF electors. (Often the same people). And they too are in the same position as the PCF but at a much lower level of engagement with the working class.

    A note on methodology. It is true that a part of the PCF apparatus and a part of the PCF motivation derives from the desire and imperative to protect its apparatus. They are, after all, human beings. But to proceed on the basis that only bureaucratic self interest motivates the PCF while its gauchiste outriders are more purely motivated is to discount the role of ideology and politics. The experiences of the last few decades have produced a crisis in the internal politics of most communist parties. It is just that in developed bourgeois democracies it expresses itself, in the interim, as confusion over electoral strategies. But class power does not transfer as a result of election results so the deeper political question is, how does the class struggle in developed capitalist countries, including electoral struggles, relate to the prospects of a decisive shift in political power to the working class on the scale of 1917 or the late 1940s?

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  20. Prinkipo Exile Avatar
    Prinkipo Exile

    The second round has been today. According to their website, the LCR had lists in the second round in 14 places, 11 for the LCR and 3 in alliance.
    LCR lists: Clermont-Ferrand, Foix, Ventabren, La Couronne, Louviers, Saint-Nazaire, Cavaillon, Prades-le-lez, Quimperlé, Palaiseau, Noisy-le-Grand.
    The 3 joint lists are in Morlaix, Montpellier and Haillan. Montpellier looks to be the interesting one as a) its a big place popn 225,000, and b) the LCR are aligned with the Greens (I struggle to understand the French municpal list system…! can someone explain …)
    http://www.lcr-rouge.org/spip.php?article1268

    Can someone post the results when they get them?

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  21. Nick Wright Avatar
    Nick Wright

    Three things are clearer. Firstly the plural left (defined as the PS, Greens, Radical Left, PCF etc) predominated over the right.
    Secondly, the strategy to bolster the mergence of a middle of the road force (Modem) designed to draw the PS even further to the right and to provide a safe home for middle class voters uncomfortable with Sarkozy’s Thatcherite strategies flopped.
    Thirdly, the PS attack on the PCF – made up of a refusal to mobilise for PCF candidates leading in the second round, direct opposition to PCF lists that included left wing socialists like in the red belt around Paris and a preference for deals with Modem in many places – handed some big towns to the right.
    What was striking was the rivalry between diverse left lists in many small and middling towns and the PS. This DVG v PS conflict is a product of the failure of the PS right to get its own way and its willingness to let the right in rather than collaborate to its left.
    Thus Henin the communist mayor of Calais lost to a right winger, former PCF deputies Liberti lost to the UMP in Sete, and Clary in Nimes. Le Havre was lost to the right.

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  22. Nick Wright Avatar
    Nick Wright

    French Local Elections: A National Vote Decrypted

    From http://humaniteinenglish.com/
    Translated Monday 17 March 2008, by Isabelle Metral
    The on-going elections (9th and 16th March) concern town and “canton”(district) councillors. A few general lessons can be drawn from the first round countrywide.
    Voters have issued a warning to Sarkozy
    Though the president’s party, the union for the popular majority (UMP),° attempted to minimize the significance of the results at first, it is now clear that the blow has struck home. For all its protests that the setbacks it suffered in the first round of the municipal and canton (district) elections were no rejection of its national policy, its general secretary Patrick Devedjian conceded on the next day that his party had indeed suffered a setback and called for a massive mobilization of right-wing electors in the second round. Not only did the Right lose Rouen, Laval, Alençon, Dieppe, Rodez, Vierzon etc. in the first round, but it is set to lose Caen, Strasbourg, Quimper as well in the second. Besides, its position is precarious in large towns: Françoise de Panafieu got relatively few votes in Paris, Dominique Perben was disqualified in Lyon; the Right is paralyzed with the fear of losing Toulouse or even Marseilles (though the balance of the forces there is more uncertain). That is a stern warning to Sarkozy, especially as he himself issued a challenge at the beginning of the campaign, calling these elections “a national test”.In the hope of giving a salvaging jolt, Sarkozy went down to Marseilles on the 11th to work voters up on one of his favourite issues: immigration. The large towns that had given a majority to the Left in 2001 have confirmed their vote. Like Paris. In Lyon, the Socialist incumbent mayor’s team was re-elected in the first round, thus inflicting a humiliating defeat on former Minister Dominique Perben. In the large cities run by the Right so far, suspense will come to an end on March 16th. Moreover the forty towns or so of 10,000 inhabitants and above that were lost to the Right in 2001 (ten of which had a communist mayor) look set to be regained by the Left.
    The Right resists in its strongholds
    Although the Right’s position is precarious in quite a few towns that it conquered in 2001, it resists in its strongholds despite competition from dissident candidates, some of whom did better in the election than the official ones, as was the case in Reims where Catherine Vautrin got ahead of Minister Renaud Dutreil, the UMP’s candidate. But as a rule, with the exception of Ministers Christine Albanel and Christine Lagarde, who lag far behind Delanoë’s lists in Paris, Rama Yade, who might be beaten next Sunday at Colombes (Hauts de Seine), and Education Minister Xavier Darcos, who is in a difficult position in his Dordogne fief of Périgueux, the ministers that are competing in the local elections are doing fairly well. Fourteen of them were elected or re-elected in the first round last Sunday, like Jean-Louis Borloo in Valenciennes or Xavier Bertrand in Saint-Quentin. The Right holds its ground in some of the towns that it conquered in 2001, as in Drancy where Jean-Christophe Lagarde was re-elected in the first round with 19.5% of the vote.
    The Frontier between Right and Left Validated
    Owing to voter dissatisfaction on social issues, the distinction between Left and Right has come back downstage in the public debate. That is indeed the most outstanding characteristic in the first round, which is why left-wing electors favoured the Socialist-Communist-Green lists of the united Left, which often included candidates from local associations and far left movements: the Trotskyite party Lutte ouvrière took the unprecedented step of joining the leftist lists in quite a few towns. The right-left polarization did not entail a loss of visibility for the Communist Party, for the PCF has conquered new positions. It did not wipe out the other component movements of the left or far left or the ecologists either: in several towns independent lists got modest, yet significant results.
    Union against Sarkozy is a must
    The lists where the Left stood united often got excellent results, whatever the political affiliation of their leaders. That was why it conquered new towns in the first round. In the départment of Seine-Maritime in Normandy, the towns of Dieppe and Rouen swung to the left with a clear majority (around 55%). In towns so far run by left-wing councils the united-left lists sometimes got massive support. In Lorient (a port in Brittany), the left who had won 58% of the vote in 2001 was elected in the first round with 64% of the vote. In Bagneux (Hauts de Seine) south of Paris, the communist mayor Marie-Hélène Amiable who headed the list for the first time (she succeeded former Mayor Janine Jambu in the middle of the term) got 56% of the votes with her team. In Sevran (Seine-Saint-Denis), north of Paris, Stéphane Gatignon (who was first elected mayor in 2001) and his team got 59% of the vote.
    The French Communist Party is beginning to get back on its feet.
    After its very low 1.9% at the presidential election and disappointing results at the legislative election, one of the issues at stake in this ballot was how the PCF would fare in this new electoral contest. On the whole, the picture after the first round of the municipal and canton elections affords some grounds for satisfaction. The communists that headed union lists rallied large swathes of voters. Wherever its militants and local councillors seemed likely to rally a majority of voters, the PCF gained votes. In the département of Seine-Saint-Denis, the Socialist party launched an “assault on communist municipalities” [1] which did not fail to spark off a lot of prognostication; yet the attempt ended in failure almost everywhere, as the PCF came first in all the primary contests but one. The loss of two canton seats in that département will however reverse the balance of forces within the leftist majority of the council. Yet this situation should not blind one to the gains in the number of seats elsewhere in several départements, or to their being promoted to the head of the list in quite a few municipalities.
    The centrist Modem party is courted by the UMP to defeat the Left
    The party’s founder, François Bayrou, former presidential candidate in the 2007 election, saw his hopes to win the election in his fief of Pau in the Pyrenees frustrated: he came second behind the leftist team. Modem lists countrywide have captured a heterogeneous electorate ranging from those that were dissatisfied with the Socialist party to right-wing voters that were put off by Nicolas Sarkozy’s toughness. Despite this, the results they got were far below those of the Modem’s candidate at the presidential election. In Paris, where the party got 9% of the vote, its leader’s repeated call for “partnership” with Bertrand Delanoë (the incumbent mayor) have so far remained unanswered. True, the centrist movement got above 10% [2] in quite a few towns, but the confusion between right and left that François Bayrou has deliberately cultivated makes his “variable strategy” incomprehensible. Last Monday Prime Minister François Fillon called on the Modem to pass reciprocal agreements with the UMP for the second round, as he thought that they must be “exchanges” between the two parties. “What I mean is that if Modem leaders are willing to back UMP lists, then as a matter of course we will back the Modem candidates when they are in a position to compete in the second round and to be backed by our majority.”
    The Trotskyite LCR (revolutionary communist league) congratulates itself on its “modest breakthrough”
    Satisfied with the “modest breakthrough” achieved by the LCR at the municipal elections, Olivier Besancenot, its candidate in the 2007 presidential election, means to take advantage of the results of his lists to speed up the foundation of his “anti-capitalist party”. The far-left movement, who opted in favour of independent lists, sometimes did far better than it had hoped. It got above 10% of the vote [3] in Clermont-ferrand (13,81%), Foix (10.85%), or again in Sotteville-lès-Rouen (14.62%). Olivier Besancenot’s party benefited from votes that had gone to Lutte Ouvrière in 2001. But it enlarged the far-left constituency in some towns, rallying voters that were critical of the local PCF-PS alliance in the first round. The far-left vote was however far more limited in towns with a communist mayor. Whereas it had got in many places the minimum 5% needed to merge with other lists in the second round, the league said it would not join leftist majorities anywhere, but would concede at the most “technical fusions” if the Right could be beaten.
    The UMP is still gobbling up the far-right vote
    The time when the National Front (FN) succeeded in putting up candidates in the second round in 103 towns of 30,000 inhabitants and more, and carried Orange, Toulon and Marignane – as it did in 1995 – seems to be over. Hénin-Beaumont (Pas de Calais), which Marine Le Pen, the National Front’s leader’s daughter wanted to make the far-right party’s showcase, will not wind up in the party’s net. For all that, the FN branch of the département is hoping to be present in the second round, beside the UMP, against Jacky Hénin, the communist mayor of Calais. He proposes merging the two lists. The fusion was officially rejected by the UMP. But that might well be a signal sent to right and far-right voters. Have we come back to the time when the Right and the National Front were allies in their attempt to conquer regional majorities? Even though it has been marginalized, the National Front is still above the 10% threshold in some towns. In Fréjus, for instance, or Vénissieux, Calais, Perpignan, Mulhouse, or again in two key-sectors in Marseilles. The far-right still has a solid base in Orange besides, where Jacques Bombard, formerly a prominent member of the front, was re-elected in the first round with 60.97% of the vote. In Marignane, however, Daniel Simompieri, another former member of the front, now UMP candidate, was defeated by the right-wing dissident candidate by a wide margin.
    [1] “Rouge banlieue” as the latest slogan goes
    [2] The minimum required for a list to merge with another previous to the second round
    [3] The minimum required for a list to be allowed to stay through to the second round

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  23. Nick Wright Avatar
    Nick Wright

    French Local Elections: A National Vote Decrypted

    Translated Monday 17 March 2008, by Isabelle Metral from http://humaniteinenglish.com/

    The on-going elections (9th and 16th March) concern town and “canton”(district) councillors. A few general lessons can be drawn from the first round countrywide.
    Voters have issued a warning to Sarkozy
    Though the president’s party, the union for the popular majority (UMP),° attempted to minimize the significance of the results at first, it is now clear that the blow has struck home. For all its protests that the setbacks it suffered in the first round of the municipal and canton (district) elections were no rejection of its national policy, its general secretary Patrick Devedjian conceded on the next day that his party had indeed suffered a setback and called for a massive mobilization of right-wing electors in the second round. Not only did the Right lose Rouen, Laval, Alençon, Dieppe, Rodez, Vierzon etc. in the first round, but it is set to lose Caen, Strasbourg, Quimper as well in the second. Besides, its position is precarious in large towns: Françoise de Panafieu got relatively few votes in Paris, Dominique Perben was disqualified in Lyon; the Right is paralyzed with the fear of losing Toulouse or even Marseilles (though the balance of the forces there is more uncertain). That is a stern warning to Sarkozy, especially as he himself issued a challenge at the beginning of the campaign, calling these elections “a national test”.In the hope of giving a salvaging jolt, Sarkozy went down to Marseilles on the 11th to work voters up on one of his favourite issues: immigration. The large towns that had given a majority to the Left in 2001 have confirmed their vote. Like Paris. In Lyon, the Socialist incumbent mayor’s team was re-elected in the first round, thus inflicting a humiliating defeat on former Minister Dominique Perben. In the large cities run by the Right so far, suspense will come to an end on March 16th. Moreover the forty towns or so of 10,000 inhabitants and above that were lost to the Right in 2001 (ten of which had a communist mayor) look set to be regained by the Left.
    The Right resists in its strongholds
    Although the Right’s position is precarious in quite a few towns that it conquered in 2001, it resists in its strongholds despite competition from dissident candidates, some of whom did better in the election than the official ones, as was the case in Reims where Catherine Vautrin got ahead of Minister Renaud Dutreil, the UMP’s candidate. But as a rule, with the exception of Ministers Christine Albanel and Christine Lagarde, who lag far behind Delanoë’s lists in Paris, Rama Yade, who might be beaten next Sunday at Colombes (Hauts de Seine), and Education Minister Xavier Darcos, who is in a difficult position in his Dordogne fief of Périgueux, the ministers that are competing in the local elections are doing fairly well. Fourteen of them were elected or re-elected in the first round last Sunday, like Jean-Louis Borloo in Valenciennes or Xavier Bertrand in Saint-Quentin. The Right holds its ground in some of the towns that it conquered in 2001, as in Drancy where Jean-Christophe Lagarde was re-elected in the first round with 19.5% of the vote.
    The Frontier between Right and Left Validated
    Owing to voter dissatisfaction on social issues, the distinction between Left and Right has come back downstage in the public debate. That is indeed the most outstanding characteristic in the first round, which is why left-wing electors favoured the Socialist-Communist-Green lists of the united Left, which often included candidates from local associations and far left movements: the Trotskyite party Lutte ouvrière took the unprecedented step of joining the leftist lists in quite a few towns. The right-left polarization did not entail a loss of visibility for the Communist Party, for the PCF has conquered new positions. It did not wipe out the other component movements of the left or far left or the ecologists either: in several towns independent lists got modest, yet significant results.
    Union against Sarkozy is a must
    The lists where the Left stood united often got excellent results, whatever the political affiliation of their leaders. That was why it conquered new towns in the first round. In the départment of Seine-Maritime in Normandy, the towns of Dieppe and Rouen swung to the left with a clear majority (around 55%). In towns so far run by left-wing councils the united-left lists sometimes got massive support. In Lorient (a port in Brittany), the left who had won 58% of the vote in 2001 was elected in the first round with 64% of the vote. In Bagneux (Hauts de Seine) south of Paris, the communist mayor Marie-Hélène Amiable who headed the list for the first time (she succeeded former Mayor Janine Jambu in the middle of the term) got 56% of the votes with her team. In Sevran (Seine-Saint-Denis), north of Paris, Stéphane Gatignon (who was first elected mayor in 2001) and his team got 59% of the vote.
    The French Communist Party is beginning to get back on its feet.
    After its very low 1.9% at the presidential election and disappointing results at the legislative election, one of the issues at stake in this ballot was how the PCF would fare in this new electoral contest. On the whole, the picture after the first round of the municipal and canton elections affords some grounds for satisfaction. The communists that headed union lists rallied large swathes of voters. Wherever its militants and local councillors seemed likely to rally a majority of voters, the PCF gained votes. In the département of Seine-Saint-Denis, the Socialist party launched an “assault on communist municipalities” [1] which did not fail to spark off a lot of prognostication; yet the attempt ended in failure almost everywhere, as the PCF came first in all the primary contests but one. The loss of two canton seats in that département will however reverse the balance of forces within the leftist majority of the council. Yet this situation should not blind one to the gains in the number of seats elsewhere in several départements, or to their being promoted to the head of the list in quite a few municipalities.
    The centrist Modem party is courted by the UMP to defeat the Left
    The party’s founder, François Bayrou, former presidential candidate in the 2007 election, saw his hopes to win the election in his fief of Pau in the Pyrenees frustrated: he came second behind the leftist team. Modem lists countrywide have captured a heterogeneous electorate ranging from those that were dissatisfied with the Socialist party to right-wing voters that were put off by Nicolas Sarkozy’s toughness. Despite this, the results they got were far below those of the Modem’s candidate at the presidential election. In Paris, where the party got 9% of the vote, its leader’s repeated call for “partnership” with Bertrand Delanoë (the incumbent mayor) have so far remained unanswered. True, the centrist movement got above 10% [2] in quite a few towns, but the confusion between right and left that François Bayrou has deliberately cultivated makes his “variable strategy” incomprehensible. Last Monday Prime Minister François Fillon called on the Modem to pass reciprocal agreements with the UMP for the second round, as he thought that they must be “exchanges” between the two parties. “What I mean is that if Modem leaders are willing to back UMP lists, then as a matter of course we will back the Modem candidates when they are in a position to compete in the second round and to be backed by our majority.”
    The Trotskyite LCR (revolutionary communist league) congratulates itself on its “modest breakthrough”
    Satisfied with the “modest breakthrough” achieved by the LCR at the municipal elections, Olivier Besancenot, its candidate in the 2007 presidential election, means to take advantage of the results of his lists to speed up the foundation of his “anti-capitalist party”. The far-left movement, who opted in favour of independent lists, sometimes did far better than it had hoped. It got above 10% of the vote [3] in Clermont-ferrand (13,81%), Foix (10.85%), or again in Sotteville-lès-Rouen (14.62%). Olivier Besancenot’s party benefited from votes that had gone to Lutte Ouvrière in 2001. But it enlarged the far-left constituency in some towns, rallying voters that were critical of the local PCF-PS alliance in the first round. The far-left vote was however far more limited in towns with a communist mayor. Whereas it had got in many places the minimum 5% needed to merge with other lists in the second round, the league said it would not join leftist majorities anywhere, but would concede at the most “technical fusions” if the Right could be beaten.
    The UMP is still gobbling up the far-right vote
    The time when the National Front (FN) succeeded in putting up candidates in the second round in 103 towns of 30,000 inhabitants and more, and carried Orange, Toulon and Marignane – as it did in 1995 – seems to be over. Hénin-Beaumont (Pas de Calais), which Marine Le Pen, the National Front’s leader’s daughter wanted to make the far-right party’s showcase, will not wind up in the party’s net. For all that, the FN branch of the département is hoping to be present in the second round, beside the UMP, against Jacky Hénin, the communist mayor of Calais. He proposes merging the two lists. The fusion was officially rejected by the UMP. But that might well be a signal sent to right and far-right voters. Have we come back to the time when the Right and the National Front were allies in their attempt to conquer regional majorities? Even though it has been marginalized, the National Front is still above the 10% threshold in some towns. In Fréjus, for instance, or Vénissieux, Calais, Perpignan, Mulhouse, or again in two key-sectors in Marseilles. The far-right still has a solid base in Orange besides, where Jacques Bombard, formerly a prominent member of the front, was re-elected in the first round with 60.97% of the vote. In Marignane, however, Daniel Simompieri, another former member of the front, now UMP candidate, was defeated by the right-wing dissident candidate by a wide margin.
    [1] “Rouge banlieue” as the latest slogan goes
    [2] The minimum required for a list to merge with another previous to the second round
    [3] The minimum required for a list to be allowed to stay through to the second round

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