Landslide victory for the left in France’s regional elections
Raymond DEBORD
(translation : Julien Silverman / Movements for socialism[1])
At the end of the first round of the regional elections the left was still a minority in relation to the right and the extreme right. At the end of the second round, it had confirmed and extended its gains to the point of winning a majority, with 50.37% of the votes. This is the first time since the 1988 residential election (the re-election of François Mitterrand) that the left has obtained an absolute majority. Its various successes had, in effect, only been possible thanks to the presence of the National Front and to the refusal of the right to ally with it.
This clean victory has come about first of all because of excellent relations between the left and the far left, despite the sectarian positions of the LO-LCR (and of a party to the left of the Communist Party) – positions which were not accepted by their followers. After this we saw an increase in the number of people voting from one week to the next: 34% abstentions in the second as against 38% in the first. Suddenly the electoral law prepared for the right gave an overwhelming majority to the left in terms of seats won! The left now controls 21 regions against only one for the right! This result is a first in the history of regional elections in metropolitan France.
Regional election results since 1986. 1986: 20 regions Right, 2 Left. 1993: 20 Right, 2 Left 1998: 14 Right, 7 Left 2004: 1 Right, 21 Left.
This result is a startling demonstration of how public opinion has rejected the government. With Chirac reappointing the prime minister one can expect tremendous social tensions and a new left victory in the European elections in June. Given this fact, the whole period is notable for the extreme volatility of the electorate which has "thrown out the departing guests" in every election for a dozen years. One can be sure that the Socialist Party today is not benefitting from any pool of goodwill and trust, and that its vote was only a way of putting a stop to Chirac/Raffiran’s antisocial measures.
While the coming months will see a major fight over the question of social security which needs to be "reformed", it is necessary to make further progress in the building of a force capable of organising the defence of workers’ interests.
It is this task which the comrades who run the le-militant.org. website will attempt to tackle within the limits of their small forces. One can only hope that things will progress in the good meaning of the word, bearing in mind that support for the National Front remains at a high level (12.55%) and they are looking to the crisis to gain them support.