More voting in France!

MORE VOTING IN FRANCE!

On Sunday (March 30th), not only did we move the clocks forward but we had the chance to vote in the second round of the local elections.

In the first round, candidates are grouped together by list, most of them attached to the major national parties, and the electors can vote for the list/party of their choice, if no-one gets more than 50%, there is a second round to choose between the two (or in some cases three) lists which remain. In the week between rounds, all sorts of negotiations take place as the valiant losers offer to support the party they think will win and to try to have some of their own people elected as local councillors. In my district, the 13^th, there are around 25 seats, so the higher up on the list you appear, the better your chances are of being elected.

On Sunday evening, the results started to roll in; the Socialist Party lost a lot of ground (one reason being the apparent vote of sanction against the very unpopular President, François Hollande), the opposition UMP (similar to the Tories in the UK) won a lot of seats as well as control of some target cities, the FN won control of more than ten cities and the Green Party unexpectedly won control of the city of Grenoble. But most eyes remained fixed on Paris; with the incumbent mayor, the Socialist Bertrand Delanöe, not seeking a third term, it would either be the Socialist Anne Hidalgo or the Conservative Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet (known as NKM). Whatever the result, a female mayor of Paris for the first time in history.

NKM came across as a rather naïve person parachuted into the city by party officials who hoped she would charm the voters with her long hair and pretty smiles. Unfortunately for her, she made a number of errors during the campaign – probably on a par with London’s Boris Johnson…but possibly even worse!

Amongst other things, she suggested building blocks of flats and offices on top of the Gare de l’Est and Nord – even though these areas are already very densely populated and local transport finds it difficult to cope with the number of people using these stations. She suggested converting disused Metro stations into underground cinemas and swimming pools – but as the metro continues to pass through these stations, it would appear rather unfeasible to have trains going through swimming pools! And her big mistake, in front of journalists, was when she said that the buses stop in Paris at 9.30 PM…most operate until after midnight and there are extra services that run all night, both in Paris and the suburbs

Anne Hidalgo, on the other hand, already a municipal councillor who had both worked with and stood in for Delanöe on a number of occasions, appeared to be more aware of life in Paris.

The opinion polls correctly predicted the victory of Hidalgo.

The Socialist Party spin doctors did their best to present this as a major victory; the UMP spin doctors pointed out that although NKM had been defeated, the party had lost better than the Socialists had elsewhere.

Rather difficult to understand that one!

The coming weeks will not see a return to normality as we have European elections in May and all the major and minor parties will regroup and come with new ideas and strategies…or perhaps old ones that have been revamped!

This time, there will only be one round of voting – so we’ll use a little less paper I’m glad to say, but we’ll have to wait and see which party loses better than the other!