Regional Elections 2010

There are many things to write about. The regional elections are set for this Sunday, March 14 and again on March 21. As usual, there will be two rounds of voting for the regional councillors who govern the 26 regions of France (four of them overseas). France is divided into smaller units called departments. A grouping of several departments forms a region, with a regional council as the governing body.

What is at stake in these elections? Not a great deal, unless the voters at long last decide to express their disillusionment with the Sarkozy government and its anti-French preferences. If they continue to put his party into positions of power, despite other options, it will mean they are still incapable of change, or unwilling, for whatever reason, to at least express what must be a profound uneasiness regarding he future of France. A few routine elections cannot change much, but it would be refreshing to see some opposition from the people.

French-language readers can turn to any number of sources for information. There is a Wikipedia page with the 26 "lists" or slates as we might call them. The "tête de liste", or "head of the list", is the person who leads the entire slate, which consists often of several smaller parties, although sometimes the list contains one party alone. If I understand correctly, they will be voting for an entire slate as it is presented, i.e., any change made to the ballot will render it null and void. The number of seats for each list is determined globally on the regional level, then divided up among the departments in terms of the number of votes obtained from each department. The person designated as "tête de liste" will become the regional president, while the others on the list will be attributed seats in a proportional system.

The two winning lists in the first round may combine with some of the losing lists, forming larger coalitions for the second round.

Below is a sample slate for the region called PACA (Provence-Alpes-Cotes-d'Azur)

Tête de Liste / Liste

Pierre Godard: NPA - Alternatifs - FASE
Jean-Marie Le Pen: FN
Isabelle Bonnet: LO
Jean-Marc Coppola: FG
Catherine Levraud: MoDem
Patrice Miran: AEI
Laurence Vichnievsky : EÉ - Cap21
Thierry Mariani: Majorité présidentielle
Jacques Bompard: BI - PDF - MNR
Michel Vauzelle: PS et alliés

Inscrits (registered voters) -
Abstention (abstentions) -
Votants (number of voters) -
Blancs et nuls (blank or null) -
Exprimés (votes expressed) -

In the above list, we see Jean-Marie Le Pen of the autonomous Front National running in what he says will be his last election against Thierry Mariani, of the Presidential Majority, meaning of course, Sarkozy's coalition of parties, and against Jacques Bompard of the BI (Bloc Identitaire). Also on Bompard's slate are the Parti de la France and the MNR, both breakaway parties of the Front National.

For our purposes, the only parties that count are the Bloc Identitaire, the MNR (National Republican Movement), the PDF (Parti de France) and the Front National. The others are all either Socialists, Greens, Communists, or some entity too small and limited to matter much. As for Philippe de Villiers, his MPF party is, to the great disappointment of many, now part of Sarkozy's coalition. Other small groups that separated from Sarkozy's UMP have also rejoined the fold for the elections.

This is always the way it is. Sarkozy manages to corral into his precinct all parties of the so-called "Right", except of course those parties known as the "extreme Right", such as the FN, the MNR and now the BI.

The regional councillors will be elected for a term of four years.

French readers can consult a plethora of articles on the elections at Le Figaro.

They can also consult the website of the Front National for articles and videos centering on Marine Le Pen's candidacy in the region Nord-Pas de Calais and Bruno Gollnisch's candidacy in the region Rhône-Alpes.

Click here for a look at some of the posters being used by the Front National in the campaign. For the first time there is a strong emphasis on Islam, but not in the sense of banishing it from French territory, only a refusal of "Islamism". The FN's youth movement, called the Front National Jeunesse created a poster with the slogan "Non à l'Islamisme" that LICRA (League against Racism and Anti-Semitism) has tried to have banned. LICRA's first lawsuit was thrown out of court earlier this week, but a second attempt will be made tomorrow March 12 at the tribunal in Marseilles. The poster (below) shows a woman in a burka and a France that is prostrate before Islam. The green color and the crescent represent the flag of Algeria. And look at the minarets - a reminder of the Swiss referendum.


TF1 describes the polemic that ensued:

On March 9, Algeria expressed outrage at the poster claiming that the French State had to take action when symbols of a foreign country are abased. Jean-Marie Le Pen, in turn, expressed anger that a foreign State was interfering in French elections: "I remind you that I did not intervene in the election of Algerian president Abdelaziz Bouteflika when 770,000 Algerian citizens residing in France voted for him." The French foreign ministry sides with Algeria, declaring through spokesman Bernard Valero: "The Algerian authorities made known yesterday their legitimate protest regarding the extremely shocking way the Algerian flag is used."

SOS-Racism accused Le Pen of trying to arouse fear and rejection of all persons of the Muslim faith, as well as Frenchmen of Algerian origin and Algerian nationals living in France.

MRAP (Movement against Racism and for Friendship among Peoples) asked the tribunal of Nanterre to ban the poster, citing the risk of "riots, street demonstrations and bloodshed". A lawyer for MRAP, Khaled Lasbeur, claimed that Algeria was being identified with Islamism, hence with fanaticism. But the lawyer for the Front National responded that the poster "does not in any way attack Islam or Muslims. It attacks Islamism."

Marine Le Pen asked: "Are we or are we not free and sovereign? Or are we under orders from the Algerian government? Our flags are regularly burnt. Are we entitled, yes or no, to find that scandalous and to denounce Islamism?" She demanded "the right to criticize the fact that the Algerian flag is waved about like a provocation," referring to the violent demonstration last November after the Algerian soccer team lost a match to Egypt.

Note: I can only repeat that this is a new tactic of the Front National which has always treated Islam gently, all the while being opposed to unregulated immigration. This shift must be in anticipation of the election. Because the Islamization process is increasing so rapidly at this point it would be unconscionable for the FN not to take a stand. However, it remains to be seen if this is an effective and permanent policy. Many individuals broke with the FN precisely because of Le Pen's frequent declarations of support and friendship for Islamic States, including Iran. Le Pen, who is familiar with Algeria, has also expressed feelings of kindness towards the Muslims he knew there. But France is now in serious peril from Islam. He and his daughter may have to adjust their policies in order to stay afloat at all.

Writing at his blog Bernard Antony denounces the effort of LICRA to ban the poster, denounces also, not without a certain irony, the collaboration of LICRA (that claims to fight anti-Semitism) with Algeria (no friend of Israel). He describes the very uneven playing field:

Thus, in our country, you can fill the airwaves with truckloads of blasphemous pornography expressing hatred of and calling for violence against Christianity and Christians, but it is forbidden to denounce the advancing implantation (of Islam) which will one day prevail, and through sharia law deprive us definitively of any possibility for a society founded on respect for life, for human dignity, for freedom, for equality of men and women, for family. (...)

He then launches into an ironic comment on the fact that the youth of the Front National Jeunesse who created the poster know nothing of Le Pen's pro-Muslim tendencies:

Nonetheless, in this case, Jean-Marie Le Pen benefits from an extraordinary stroke of luck. These young supporters of the FNJ of Marseilles knew nothing of his Islamophilia, of his speech to the immigrants of Argenteuil, of his remarks to Famille Chrétienne on the beneficial role played by Islam in the ghettoes. They know nothing of his pleasure in attending the celebration of the anniversary of the Islamic revolution in Iran, nothing of his preference for Hezbollah or of his close friendship with Mohammed Latrèche, or with the UOIF (Union of Islamic Organizations of France), nothing of the influence of Farid Smahi or of Alain Soral.

Thanks to these young people and their poster, he has been in some way returned to his origins as a national resistance fighter. Was this a clever maneuver by someone who is quick to change direction? Who knows?

That is a powerful indictment of Jean-Marie Le Pen, from one who used to belong to the Front National, but it is absolutely necessary for the French to realize what the dangers are of voting for the FN. At the same time, if the FN can separate itself from the schizophrenia of its leader, and forge a new destiny based on a realistic approach to fighting Islam, the party may be able to save itself.