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Latest update: 16/03/2010
- French politics - French regional elections 2010 - Nicolas Sarkozy
Left-wing parties 'close' to alliance deal for second round
Automatic transcript
with the first round of voting over the horse trading has begun -- France's Socialist party came out on top -- with the highest percentage of votes fish in light -- it's likely partner heading into round two missed a green party Europe ecology -- they came in third overall but nearly thirteen percent of the vote loser -- do we we continue discussions with our other partners on that it will through to reach an agreement to drink June our alliance Jim Malone broke -- Yup -- the Socialist party has a lighted stage -- in the last regional elections in two thousand and four it took control in twenty of France's twenty two mainland regions -- this year it wants to sweep the mall -- and for that it needs to join forces with other leftist parties especially if you are apology -- after a strong showing in the European elections last year -- the green party has emerged as a third force in French politics -- now both sides are angling for dominance in do you may wanna be on top of the list it will be number two on all the lists utility presence committee's vice president if the law the proposal the eBay Socialist saying any agreement must be proportional to the shares of the vote -- says the Queen's considered themselves to be an up and coming political forests and demand a larger representation -- this is causing problems in Brittany where it looks like there may be no agreement at all -- local paper praising thrust her three we had in two thousand and eight Widnes and ten percent of the first things that won't person the course bosses and Houston were proposing tons each -- parties have until six PM Tuesday to seal their alliances
After securing a lead in the first round of regional elections, the Socialist Party was on track Tuesday to conclude intense talks with the Greens and the Left Front to form an alliance for the critical March 21 runoffs in all but three regions.
After its first place showing in round one of France’s regional elections, the Socialist Party was engaged in a frantic round of backroom horse trading with other left-wing parties on Tuesday ahead of the March 21 second round.
Sources close to the talks suggested the Socialists had reached an agreement with the Greens and the Left Front in all regions barring Brittany (west), Nord-Pas-de-Calais (north) and Limousin (centre).
Coalition lists must be submitted before a 6pm deadline on Tuesday.
The apparent breakthrough followed a series of conflicting reports on Monday evening, with Claude Bartolone, a Socialist Party member in charge of forming political alliances, announcing that the party had reached a nationwide agreement with the Greens.
Minutes later, his report had been denied by a senior member of the Green party. In an interview with the AFP news service, Jean-Vincent Placé said the reports were “very premature” and maintained that the announcement by the Socialists “left us perplexed”.
The opposition Socialist Party triumphed over the ruling UMP party in Sunday’s first round, winning 29.48 percent of the vote against the UMP’s 26.18 percent. The European Greens garnered 12.47 percent, ahead of the right-wing National Front’s 11.74 percent.
A coalition of the far left, the Left Front, won up to 5.7 percent of votes, bettering the centrist MoDem party, historically France’s third most successful party, which struggled to reach 4.24 percent on Sunday.
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A second-round ballot will be staged March 21, with only the leading parties going forward to the conclusive vote, which will decide who runs France’s 26 regions.
Since no single party won an outright majority in any region in the first round, the runoff is crucial for France’s leading political parties. Under French law, any party that wins more than 10 percent of the vote in the first round can team up with any party that won more than 5 percent and present a joint list of candidates for the second round.
Sunday’s results were widely viewed as a referendum of President Nicolas Sarkozy’s 34 months in power. However, voter antipathy resulted in a record low turnout for a regional election, with a 53.65 percent abstention rate.
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Comments (1)
regional elections are
regional elections are completly different from the national ones. Though some might find it illogical to vote "right" for one and "left" for the other, it can clearly be explained ( in part ) by the fact that the left has a better network on a lower level. Right by definition tends to centralize power and so the leaders are not so present on a more local level.
having the left winning the regional election is not to be interpreted as a disapproval of the presidential action ( pls, stop saying the president is the party itself ! he is only its head and people should start thinking by themselves more instead of blaming all on the president's. He is not all powerfull, he only has the power that the others leave him by their non acting. It's so easy to criticize the only one who does something or takes initiatives ).
The region and the Nation do not act on the same level and work in cooperation, we've seen in the past that the left having the majority at regional elections does not radically changes national policies...
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