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79-547: In the 2007 presidential election , Antoine Waechter rallied the centrist Francois Bayrou after failing to be a candidate himself. Before the 2007 general election , the party signed an electoral deal with Ecology Generation , the Greens and CAP21 having refused to join. 133 MEI candidates nationwide ran for the assembly's 577 seats. 84 candidates obtained 1% or more, even with Green opposition. The MEI seems to have become France's second green party. Despite being openly favourable to

158-456: A county of the United States . At the 2001 census, the median population of a department in continental France was 511,000 inhabitants, which is 21 times the median population of a United States county, but less than two-thirds of the median population of a ceremonial county of England and Wales. Most of the departments have an area of between 4,000 and 8,000 km (1500 to 3000 sq. mi.), and

237-777: A candidate are defined by the organic law of 6 November 1962. All candidates must be of French nationality and at least 23 years old (the same requirement as for the candidates to the National Assembly ). Candidates must obtain signatures from 500 elected officials (mayors, members of Parliament, elected representatives) supporting their candidacy. These signatures from elected officials (informally known in French as parrainages , but legally known as "presentations") must be from at least 30 departments or overseas territories, and no more than 10 percent can be from any individual department. A presentation from an elected official does not imply

316-488: A close third ahead of Le Pen, who obtained 13.4%). However, in working-class neighbourhoods of the north of Marseille, such as Savine ( 15th arrondissement ) and the Busserine ( 14th arrondissement ), Royal received overwhelming support, receiving 60% of the vote in Busserine. France's third-largest city, Lyon , also was won by Sarkozy, who received 34.5% of the vote to 27.3% for Royal and 22% for Bayrou. He triumphed as well in

395-465: A former Socialist, Max Gallo , who had supported left-wing Republican Jean-Pierre Chevènement in 2002, Eric Besson , etc., passed on Sarkozy's side. On the other hand, some right-wing voters, upset by Sarkozy's attitude on law and order, immigration, and even genetics (his recent declarations on paedophilia , homosexuality and suicides as genetically induced, denounced by the geneticist Axel Kahn ), decided to vote for Bayrou. Centrist figures of

474-495: A more uniform division into departments ( département ) and districts in late 1789. The process began on 4 August 1789 with the elimination of provincial privileges, and a 22 December 1789 decree (with letters patent in January 1790) provided for the termination of the provincial governments. The modern department system, as all-purpose units of the government, was decreed on 26 February 1790 (with letters patent on 4 March 1790) by

553-401: A number of issues: Approximately 200 French intellectuals expressed support for Ségolène Royal. These included the philosopher Étienne Balibar (a student of Louis Althusser ), the editor François Maspero , the historian Pierre Rosanvallon , the psychoanalyst Fethi Benslama , the philosopher Jacques Bouveresse , the sociologist Robert Castel , the philosopher Catherine Colliot-Thélène ,

632-538: A particular importance because of the generalisation of blogs and Internet pages. Journalist Jean-Marc Morandini stirred turmoil when he announced his intention of publishing results on his blog as soon as 18:00. Another problem was that the results from the voting offices in the Americas (consulates and French overseas possessions) were counted on Saturday night, and some began circulating rumours as to these results. [REDACTED] [REDACTED] The first round saw

711-509: A population between 320,000 and 1 million. The largest in area is Gironde (10,000 km (3,900 sq mi).), while the smallest is the city of Paris (105 km (41 sq mi).). The most populous is Nord (2,550,000) and the least populous is Lozère (74,000). The departments are numbered: their two-digit numbers appear in postal codes , in INSEE codes (including "social security numbers") and on vehicle number plates . Initially

790-633: A surprising 16.9% and qualified for the second round. Immediately after the first round's results were made official, four defeated left-wing candidates – José Bové , Marie-George Buffet , Arlette Laguiller and Dominique Voynet – urged their supporters to vote for Royal. This was the first time since 1981 that Laguiller had endorsed the Socialist Party's candidate. Olivier Besancenot called his supporters to vote against Sarkozy. Frédéric Nihous and Gérard Schivardi never officially supported either Royal or Sarkozy. Philippe de Villiers called for

869-775: A televised debate . By around 6:15 pm local time on 6 May, Belgian and Swiss news sources such as Le Soir , RTBF , La Libre Belgique and La Tribune de Genève had announced Nicolas Sarkozy as the winner of the second round, citing preliminary exit poll data. The final CSA estimate showed him winning with 53% of the votes cast. Royal conceded defeat to Sarkozy that evening. Nationwide, Nicolas Sarkozy obtained 31% and Ségolène Royal 26% – while in 2002, Jacques Chirac had obtained 20%, and Lionel Jospin 16.18%. The right-of-centre François Bayrou obtained 18.6% this time, nearly tripling his 2002 result (6.8%). National Front (FN) candidate, Jean-Marie Le Pen, made only 10.4%, compared to his stunning 16.9% finish in 2002. Along with

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948-399: A three-digit number. The number is used, for example, in the postal code and was until recently used for all vehicle registration plates . Residents commonly use the numbers to refer to their own department or a neighbouring one, for example inhabitants of Loiret may refer to their department as "the 45". More distant departments are generally referred to by their names, as few people know

1027-404: A very high turnout of 83.8% – 36.7 million of the 44.5 million electorate voted from a population of 64.1 million (not including French people living abroad). The results of that round saw Sarkozy and Royal qualify for the second round with Sarkozy getting 31% and Royal 26%. François Bayrou came third (19%) and Jean-Marie Le Pen fourth (10%), unlike in 2002 when Le Pen got

1106-485: A vote for Sarkozy. Le Pen told his voters to "abstain massively" in the second round. On 25 April, Bayrou declared he would not support either candidate in the runoff, and announced he would form a new political party called the Democratic Movement . He criticised both major candidates, and offered to debate them. Royal agreed to hold a televised debate, while Sarkozy offered to have a private discussion but not

1185-610: Is mayor , voted 38.3% for him, against 26% for Royal and 21.3% for Bayrou. Sarkozy also won in the Essonne department (more than 31% against 27% for Royal), in the Seine-et-Marne (33.5% to almost 24% for Royal) as well as in the Yvelines (37.7% against 23% for Royal and 22% for Bayrou). Marseille , the second-largest city of France, went Sarkozy's way overall as he won 34.25% of the vote to 27.1% for Royal and only 14.1% for Bayrou (putting

1264-558: Is a social-democrat, like Royal. José Manuel Barroso , the head of the European Commission, has privately discussed the idea of forming a "strategic partnership" with Mr. Sarkozy. Many U.S. pundits and western economists expressed support for Nicolas Sarkozy . Steve Forbes devoted several columns in the influential financial publication FORBES Magazine . The London-based magazine The Economist also expressed support for Sarkozy's economic platform . In 2011, according to

1343-525: Is commonly associated, though not all are officially recognised or used. Unlike the rest of the French possessions in Africa , Algeria was divided into departments just like Corsica or Normandy from 1848 until its independence in 1962. These departments were supposed to be "assimilated" or "integrated" to France sometime in the future. There are a number of former departments in territories conquered by France during

1422-411: Is known as the prefecture ( préfecture ) or chef-lieu de département and is generally a town of some importance roughly at the geographical centre of the department. This was determined according to the time taken to travel on horseback from the periphery of the department. The goal was for the prefecture to be accessible on horseback from any town in the department within 24 hours. The prefecture

1501-555: Is not necessarily the largest city in the department: for instance, in Saône-et-Loire department the capital is Mâcon , but the largest city is Chalon-sur-Saône . Departments may be divided into arrondissements . The capital of an arrondissement is called a subprefecture ( sous-préfecture ) or chef-lieu d'arrondissement . Each department is administered by a departmental council ( conseil départemental ), an assembly elected for six years by universal suffrage , with

1580-629: The Ponts et Chaussées (Bridges and Highways) infrastructure administration. Before the French Revolution , France gained territory gradually through the annexation of a mosaic of independent entities. By the end of the Ancien Régime it was organised into provinces . During the Revolution they were dissolved, partly in order to weaken old loyalties. The National Constituent Assembly decided to create

1659-602: The 1823 French intervention ending the trienio liberal ) and the 1833 territorial division of Spain , which forms the basis of the present day Provinces of Spain with minor modifications, are also based on the French model of departments of roughly equal size. Most French departments are assigned a two-digit number, the Official Geographical Code, allocated by the Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques ( Insée ). Overseas departments have

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1738-880: The Alsace-Lorraine region). A map of France's departments shows the candidate of the Socialist Party, Ségolène Royal, came first in the South-West and the Massif Central , which were traditional bases of the Radical-Socialist Party during the Third Republic . She also topped the poll in Brittany , except in the department of Morbihan , but a fifth of electors in Brittany voted for Bayrou. Nièvre and Seine-Saint-Denis were other departments where she came first, as well as

1817-569: The Europe Écologie coalition, for the 2009 European Parliament election , the party ran as part of the Independent Ecological Alliance which won 3.63% of the vote. The party continued its participation in the Independent Ecological Alliance during the 2010 regional elections , except notably in Alsace where it participated in a joint Europe Écologie -MEI list, which later merged with

1896-471: The ISO 3166-2 country subdivision codes for the metropolitan departments. The overseas departments have three digits. Originally, the relationship between the departments and the central government was left somewhat ambiguous. While citizens in each department elected their own officials, the local governments were subordinated to the central government, becoming instruments of national integration. By 1793, however,

1975-585: The National Constituent Assembly . Their boundaries served two purposes: The old nomenclature was carefully avoided in naming the new departments. Most were named after an area's principal river or other physical features. Even Paris was in the department of Seine . Savoy , during its temporary occupation, became the department of Mont-Blanc . The provinces continued to exist administratively until 21 September 1791. The number of departments, initially 83, had been increased to 130 by 1809 with

2054-634: The President of the Departmental Council as executive of the department. Before 1982, the chief executive of the department was the prefect ( préfet ), who represents the Government of France in each department and is appointed by the President of the French Republic . The prefect is assisted by one or more sub-prefects ( sous-préfet ) based in the subprefectures of the department. Since 1982,

2133-753: The Socialist list. Antoine Waechter was elected regional councillor for the Haut-Rhin and the party received 2 other regional councillors across France. This article about a green political party is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This article about a political party in France is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . 2007 French presidential election Jacques Chirac UMP Nicolas Sarkozy UMP Presidential elections were held in France on 21 and 22 April 2007 to elect

2212-569: The Territoire de Belfort ; the remaining parts of Meurthe and Moselle were merged into a new Meurthe-et-Moselle department. When France regained the ceded departments after World War I , the Territoire de Belfort was not reintegrated into Haut-Rhin. In 1922 it became France's 90th department. Likewise the Lorraine departments were not changed back to their original boundaries, and a new Moselle department

2291-651: The UMP , said in December 2008 that the fusion of the departments with the regions was a matter to be dealt with soon. This was soon refuted by Édouard Balladur and Gérard Longuet , members of the committee for the reform of local authorities, known as the Balladur Committee. In January 2008, the Attali Commission recommended that the departmental level of government should be eliminated within ten years. Nevertheless,

2370-411: The administrative regions and the communes . There are ninety-six departments in metropolitan France , with an additional five overseas departments , which are also classified as overseas regions. Departments are further subdivided into 333 arrondissements and 2,054 cantons (as of 2023). These last two levels of government have no political autonomy, instead serving as the administrative basis for

2449-402: The overseas collectivity of Saint Pierre and Miquelon (6.5%, along with 5.1% for José Bové; only 6.7% for Le Pen). Departments of France In the administrative divisions of France , the department ( French : département , pronounced [depaʁtəmɑ̃] ) is one of the three levels of government under the national level (" territorial collectivities "), between

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2528-472: The seventh arrondissement voted for 56% in favour of Sarkozy, to 20.35 for Bayrou and 15.35% for Royal; the eighth arrondissement voted at more than 58% for Sarkozy to 18.65% for Bayrou and 14% for Royal; the 15th arrondissement voted 41.5% for Sarkozy against 24.3% for Royal and 22.9% for Bayrou. The mostly wealthy Paris suburbs of the Hauts-de-Seine department, home of Neuilly-sur-Seine where Sarkozy

2607-517: The tenth arrondissement of Paris , Royal obtained 42% against 25% for Sarkozy, and 20.35% for Bayrou; in the 11th arrondissement , Royal obtained more than 40.8% to 25.8% for Sarkozy and 20.9% for Bayrou. In the 18th arrondissement , Royal obtained 41.1% against 23.4% for Sarkozy; in the 19th arrondissement , Royal obtained more than 39%, against almost 28% for Sarkozy; and in the 20th arrondissement , Royal obtained 42.4% against 23.2% for Sarkozy, and 18.3% for Bayrou. Royal also narrowly beat Sarkozy in

2686-634: The 1980s by an industrial crisis, gave a plurality to Sarkozy (29.3%), while Royal won 24.8% (and won the city of Lille ) and Bayrou received 15.6%. Marie-George Buffet barely received 5% in the constituency of the Communist deputy Alain Bocquet . The Haute-Garonne , traditional Radical-Socialist territory, voted (including its capital, Toulouse), for Ségolène Royal, giving her 33%, against less than 27% for Sarkozy and slightly more than 19% for Bayrou. The Corrèze , where Jacques Chirac began his political career as

2765-558: The 2000s, with some department-level services merged into region-level services. The departments were created in 1790 as a rational replacement of Ancien Régime provinces with a view to strengthen national unity; the title "department" is used to mean a part of a larger whole. Almost all of them were named after physical geographical features (rivers, mountains, or coasts), rather than after historical or cultural territories, which could have their own loyalties, or after their own administrative seats. The division of France into departments

2844-616: The 2005 civil unrest. According to the journalist Jacques Julliard , the support of some French intellectuals for the 2003 invasion of Iraq is the root of their rallying to Sarkozy, following the creation of the review titled Le Meilleur des mondes (Brave New World). Pascal Bruckner , historian Stéphane Courtois , Thérèse Delpech , André Glucksmann , Romain Goupil , Pierre-André Taguieff , Olivier Rollin , and Pierre Rigoulot are frequent contributors to this review. Tennis player Yannick Noah called to vote for Royal, while Sarkozy obtained

2923-465: The 40% line, while Sarkozy received only 23.6%. In Créteil , she won a closer race, gaining 35% to Sarkozy's 30% and 18% for Bayrou. In the department of Seine-Saint-Denis , home to many people of immigrant origin, Royal obtained 34.2% to 26.8% for Sarkozy and 16.7% for Bayrou. In contrast, wealthy arrondissements of Paris voted for Sarkozy. The prosperous 16th arrondissement gave him 64% of its vote, against 16.4% for Bayrou and only 11.27% for Royal;

3002-684: The 5% necessary to have his political campaign reimbursed by the state. Besancenot received 4.1%, compared to 4.3% in 2002. He was followed by the traditionalist Philippe de Villiers (2.2%), Communist Marie-George Buffet (1.9%, compared to 3.4% for Robert Hue in 2002), Green candidate Dominique Voynet (1.6%, compared to 5.3% for Noël Mamère in 2002), Workers' Struggle 's candidate Arlette Laguiller (1.3%, compared to 5.7% in 2002), alter-globalisation candidate José Bové (1.3%), Frédéric Nihous (1.2% , against 4.2% for Jean Saint-Josse in 2002) and finally Gérard Schivardi with 0.3% ( Daniel Gluckstein had achieved 0.5% in 2002). The abstention rate

3081-554: The April–May shift to the far right made by Sarkozy, this has led many commentators to allege that traditional voters of the FN had been tempted by Sarkozy. Overall, the left-wing reached 36% of the votes, against 19% for the "centre", 33% for the right wing and 11% for the far right . Other candidates received a much lower share of the vote than they had in 2002, with Olivier Besancenot ( Revolutionary Communist League , LCR) failing to achieve

3160-412: The Balladur Committee has not retained this proposition and does not advocate the disappearance of the departments, but simply "favors the voluntary grouping of departments", which it suggests also for the regions, with the aim of reducing the number of regions to 15. This committee advocates, on the contrary, the suppression of the cantons. Each department has a coat of arms and a flag with which it

3239-537: The No. 1 board, those for Marie-George Buffet on the No. 2 board, etc., regardless of where in France the boards were located. There were 12 candidates for the 2007 election. Four candidates consistently registered over 10% in the opinion polls and were regarded as having a reasonable chance of reaching the second round. These were the eight other candidates who obtained the required 500 signatures from elected officials to endorse their candidacy. The election campaign raised

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3318-826: The Republic (all created in 1946) – French Guiana , Guadeloupe , Martinique and Réunion – the total number of departments in the French Republic had become 101. In 2015 the Urban Community of Lyon was split from Rhône to form the Métropole de Lyon , a sui generis entity, with the powers of both an intercommunality and those of a department on its territory, formally classified as a "territorial collectivity with particular status" ( French : collectivité territoriale à statut particulier ) and as such not belonging to any department. As of 2019 Corse-du-Sud and Haute-Corse are still administrative departments, although they no longer have

3397-657: The Socialist party, such as Michel Rocard and Bernard Kouchner , called for an alliance between Bayrou and Royal, which might have had consequences in the June 2007 legislative elections – these determined the parliamentary majority , and decided that France would not see another cohabitation between the President, head of state, and the Prime minister, leader of the government. Former socialist minister Claude Allègre stated such an alliance

3476-414: The country's capital city, is a commune as well as a department. In continental France ( metropolitan France , excluding Corsica ), the median land area of a department is 5,965 km (2,303 sq mi), which is two-and-a-half times the median land area of the ceremonial counties of England and the preserved counties of Wales and slightly more than three-and-half times the median land area of

3555-407: The day of the election and the preceding day, so as to prevent undue influencing of the vote. No estimate can be given before Sunday 8 pm, when the last voting office closes and official counts begin to be released. However, media from neighbouring countries, which are not bound by these regulations, have long broadcast estimates ( Télévision Suisse Romande in particular). In 2007, the issue took

3634-587: The department. Le Pen. meanwhile, managed only 6.5%. Le Pen's highest departmental tallies occurred in Aisne (17.3%) and Haute-Marne (17%). Other departments to give him more than 15% were the Vaucluse (16.8%), Haute-Saône (16.5%), Meuse (16.3%), Ardennes (16.2% – where left-wing candidate Besancenot received 5.35%), Pas-de-Calais (16%), Oise (15.9%), Corse-du-Sud (15.9%), Vosges (15.7%), and Gard (15.4%), Departments where Besancenot obtained more than 5% of

3713-968: The deputy of Ussel , also voted slightly in favour of Royal, as did the Creuse , one of the least-populated departments of France. The Alpes-Maritimes , part of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region where the National Front won several cities in the 1990s ( Toulon of the Var , Marignane of the Bouches-du-Rhône and Orange of the Vaucluse ) voted for Sarkozy at 43.6%, while Royal received only 17.9%, Bayrou 15.0%, and Jean-Marie Le Pen 13.5%. The Vaucluse department gave 32.8% of its votes to Sarkozy, 20.9% to Royal, 16.8% to Le Pen and 15.5% to Bayrou. The Vendée voted 29.7% for Sarkozy, 21.7% for Royal, 20.8% for Bayrou, and 11.3% for Philippe de Villiers , deputy of

3792-566: The first to have seen adulthood under the Fifth Republic , and the first not to have been in politics under Charles de Gaulle . For the first time in a presidential election, electronic voting was introduced in some areas, having been authorised in 2004. They were introduced in only 82 of 36,000 voting districts , and were criticised by a number of people, both on the left and on the right. A petition against them has also been made (see Wikinews:Electronic voting disputed in France ). Using

3871-509: The historian Michelle Perrot , the economist Thomas Piketty , the historian Benjamin Stora , the anthropologist Emmanuel Terray , the lawyer Michel Tubiana (former president of the Human Rights League ), and the sociologist Loïc Wacquant (a student of Pierre Bourdieu ). Régis Debray called to vote first for a far-left candidate, then Royal in the second round. On the other hand,

3950-450: The local organisation of police, fire departments as well as, in certain cases, elections. Each department is administered by an elected body called a departmental council ( sg. conseil départemental , pl. conseils départementaux ). From 1800 to April 2015, these were called general councils ( sg. conseil général , pl. conseils généraux ). Each council has a president. Their main areas of responsibility include

4029-411: The management of a number of social and welfare allowances, of junior high school ( collège ) buildings and technical staff, and local roads and school and rural buses, and a contribution to municipal infrastructures. Local services of the state administration are traditionally organised at departmental level, where the prefect represents the government; however, regions have gained importance since

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4108-595: The new Savoyard territory, while the department of Alpes-Maritimes was created from Nice and a portion of the Var department. The 89 departments were given numbers based on the alphabetical order of their names. The department of Bas-Rhin and parts of Meurthe , Moselle , Vosges and Haut-Rhin were ceded to the German Empire in 1871 following France's defeat in the Franco-Prussian War . A small part of Haut-Rhin, however, remained French and became known as

4187-505: The normally conservative city of Bordeaux (31.4% against 30.8%, and 22% for Bayrou), as well as in Brest , Caen , Clermont-Ferrand , Grenoble , Nantes , Rouen , Lille , Le Mans , Montpellier , Saint-Étienne , Limoges , Amiens , Pau (where Bayrou finished first), Rennes and Toulouse (the historical base of the former Radical-Socialist Party ). Working-class Paris suburbs (called les banlieues ) also massively voted for Royal. This

4266-407: The numbers corresponded to the alphabetical order of the names of the departments, but several changed their names and some have been divided, so the correspondence became less exact. Alphanumeric codes 2A and 2B were used for Corsica while it was split but it has since reverted to 20. The two-digit code "98" is used by Monaco . Together with the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country code FR, the numbers form

4345-442: The numbers of all the departments. In 2014, President François Hollande proposed abolishing departmental councils by 2020, which would have maintained the departments as administrative divisions, and transferring their powers to other levels of governance. This reform project has since been scrapped. The first French territorial departments were proposed in 1665 by Marc-René d'Argenson to serve as administrative areas purely for

4424-455: The official supports the policies of the candidate, but rather that this official considers the candidate to be a serious candidate. Candidates must also submit a statement with details of their personal assets. The Constitutional Council published the official candidate list on 20 March 2007. The candidates were listed in a randomised order. This order was used for the official campaign: thus, posters for Olivier Besancenot were always be on

4503-485: The overseas departments of Martinique and Réunion and the overseas territory of Saint Pierre and Miquelon . Sarkozy came first everywhere else, except for Pyrénées-Atlantiques , where Bayrou topped the poll in the department of his birth. The left regressed, compared 2002, in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region, which has traditionally favored Socialist and Communist candidates. The Nord department , hit hard during

4582-429: The prefect retains only the powers that are not delegated to the department councils. In practice, their role has been largely limited to preventing local policy from conflicting with national policy. The departments are further divided into communes , governed by municipal councils . As of 2013, there were 36,681 communes in France. In the overseas territories , some communes play a role at departmental level. Paris ,

4661-460: The revolutionary government had turned the departments into transmission belts for policies enacted in Paris. With few exceptions, the departments had this role until the early 1960s. These maps cannot be used as a useful resource of voter preferences, because Departmental Councils are elected on a two-round system, which drastically limits the chances of fringe parties, if they are not supported on one of

4740-596: The same school as Sarkozy's offspring. The humourist Dieudonné and the writer Alain Soral supported Jean-Marie Le Pen. Actress Juliette Binoche supported José Bové. The song Elle est facho (She's a fascist) on the Rouge Sang album by singer Renaud released in 2006 gained particular media attention for lyrics in the last verse that translate as "she's a fascist and votes Sarko" Prominent political commentator Alain Duhamel

4819-626: The so-called Nouveaux Philosophes were split on their support. André Glucksmann called to vote Sarkozy, while Bernard-Henri Lévy voted for Ségolène Royal. Max Gallo , who had supported the left-wing Republican Jean-Pierre Chevènement in 2002, joined Sarkozy five years later. Pascal Bruckner and Alain Finkielkraut have also proved close to Sarkozy, although they did not declare support for him, but Sarkozy did support Finkielkraut after controversial statements made in Haaretz newspaper following

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4898-453: The son of the Libyan leader Saif Al-Islam Gaddafi, Sarkozy was provided with financial support from Libya during the presidential election. In 2012, Mediapart published material revealing Gaddafi's financial support to Nicolas Sarkozy for the election. In March 2018 Sarkozy was charged for corruption. French law prohibits publishing the results of opinion polls related to the election during

4977-428: The status of departmental " territorial collectivities ": region and department functions have been managed by a " single territorial collectivity " since 2018. Despite the intention to avoid the old nomenclature, often the names of pre-1790 provinces remained in use. For example, the name of Berry , though no longer having an official status, remains in widespread use in daily life. The departmental seat of government

5056-456: The successor to Jacques Chirac as president of France (and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra ) for a five-year term. As no candidate received a majority of the vote, a second round was held on 5 and 6 May 2007 between the two leading candidates, Nicolas Sarkozy and Ségolène Royal . Sarkozy was elected with 53% of the vote. Sarkozy and Royal both represented a generational change. Both main candidates were born after World War II, along with

5135-520: The support of singers Johnny Hallyday , Mireille Mathieu and Faudel , of rapper Doc Gyneco , and former politician and current actor Bernard Tapie . He also had the support of actors Jean Reno and Christian Clavier , both residing in Neuilly-sur-Seine where Sarkozy was the mayor between 1983 and 2002 and of Gérard Depardieu . But also of industrialist Martin Bouygues , whose children attended

5214-495: The tactical voting, on the right or on the left, explains the low score of the other candidates, in contrast with the last presidential election's first round. The electoral campaign saw a polarisation of the political scene, encapsulated by the "Anyone But Sarkozy" slogan on the left. But it also saw a reconfiguration of the political chessboard, with various left-wing figures and voters deciding to support Sarkozy against Royal, who saw opposition inside her own party. Bernard Tapie ,

5293-575: The territorial gains of the Republic and of the First French Empire . Following the defeats of Napoleon in 1814–1815 the Congress of Vienna returned France to its pre-war size and the number of departments was reduced to 86 (three of the original departments having been split). In 1860 France acquired the County of Nice and Savoy , which led to the creation of three new departments. Two were added from

5372-446: The three colours of the national flag (blue, white, and red) on electoral advertisements or partisan documentation was prohibited by electoral regulations. Ségolène Royal contended that the book Ensemble ("together") published by Nicolas Sarkozy, whose cover is blue, white and red, was effectively an electoral partisan documentation and should have been covered by this prohibition. The requirements for being successfully nominated as

5451-455: The two rounds by a moderate party. After the 1992 election, the left had a majority in only 21 of the 100 departments; after the 2011 election, the left dominated 61 of the 100 departments. (Mayotte only became a department after the election.) Key to the parties: The removal of one or more levels of local government has been discussed for some years; in particular, the option of removing the departmental level. Frédéric Lefebvre , spokesman for

5530-447: The vote include Ardennes , Aisne (where Le Pen also achieved a strong results), Ariège , Allier (where Sarkozy obtained 28% against nearly 26% for Royal), Calvados (where Sarkozy finished first with 29% to 25% for Royal), Finistère , Cher, Côtes d'Armor , Creuse, Indre , Meurthe-et-Moselle, Nord , Meuse, Moselle , Pas-de-Calais (6.2%), Sarthe , Nièvre, Puy-de-Dôme , Somme, Territoire-de-Belfort , Seine-Maritime, Haute-Vienne and

5609-464: The wealthy city of Aix-en-Provence with 36.8%, against 25.4% for Royal and 19.8% for Bayrou. In Nice , a conservative stronghold, Sarkozy obtained more than 41% against 20.4% for Royal and less than 15% for Bayrou. Sarkozy also narrowly beat Royal in the industrial port of Le Havre (29% against 26.8%), as well as in Avignon , Nîmes , Metz , Nancy , and Strasbourg (these last three cities belonging to

5688-421: The writer Chloé Delaume , the historian Michel Dreyfus , the anthropologist Françoise Héritier , the sculptor Françoise Jolivet , the film-maker Roy Lekus , the sociologist Eric Macé , the philosopher Pierre Macherey , the philosopher Jean-Claude Monod the artist Ariane Mnouchkine , the economist Yann Moulier-Boutang (involved with Multitudes ), the historian Gérard Noiriel , the historian Pascal Ory ,

5767-424: Was "entirely conceivable", while Royal herself strongly criticised Rocard's comments. François Hollande , the national secretary of the Socialist Party and Ségolène Royal's partner, excluded any alliance with the centre-right, along with others left-wing leaders, such as Laurent Fabius or Dominique Voynet . In urban areas, most lower and middle-income neighbourhoods and cities voted largely for Ségolène Royal. In

5846-519: Was 15.4%. With an overall record turnout of 83.8%, a level not achieved since the 1965 presidential election when turnout was 84.8%, the vast majority of the electorate decided not to stay home. Most of them decided against protest votes , and chose the vote utile ( tactical voting , literally "useful vote"), that is, a vote for one of the purported leaders of the electoral race (Nicolas Sarkozy, Ségolène Royal and/or François Bayrou). The "Anyone But Sarkozy" push benefited both Bayrou and Royal, while

5925-484: Was a project particularly identified with the French revolutionary leader the Abbé Sieyès , although it had already been frequently discussed and written about by many politicians and thinkers. The earliest known suggestion of it is from 1665 in the writings of d'Argenson . They have inspired similar divisions in many countries, some of them former French colonies. The 1822 territorial division of Spain (reverted due to

6004-463: Was created in the regained territory, with slightly different boundaries from the pre-war department of the same name. The reorganisation of Île-de-France in 1968 and the division of Corsica in 1975 added six more departments, raising the total in Metropolitan France to 96. By 2011, when the overseas collectivity of Mayotte became a department, joining the earlier overseas departments of

6083-466: Was criticised after she informally suggested support for Royal on her blog, celebrating the fact that a woman got into the second round. She said: "J'étais si contente de voir qu'une femme participera au deuxième tour de l‘élection présidentielle!" (I was so happy to see that a woman would be participating in the second round of the presidential election!) Commissioners are not meant to be politically biased in elections under their code of conduct. Wallström

6162-748: Was more or less expected, in particular with the high level of voter registration by suburban youths, who had been strongly opposed to Sarkozy since the 2005 riots during which he had made controversial remarks. Meanwhile, a large number of university students had participated in the protests against the CPE , proposed by Sarkozy's UMP party, in the spring of 2006; they also strongly backed Royal. She consequently came first in Nanterre , with almost 36% against 23% for Sarkozy. She reached 41.6% in Saint-Denis , against 19.6% for Sarkozy and 15.5% for Bayrou. In Évry , she also passed

6241-575: Was suspended in 2006 after a video was published on DailyMotion , where he stated his personal intentions of voting for François Bayrou. Abroad, Silvio Berlusconi , the former prime minister of Italy , gave his support to Sarkozy immediately following the first round, while Romano Prodi , the then Italian premier and leader of the centre-left Union coalition, called for an alliance between Bayrou and Royal. Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero has shown his support for Royal. European commissioner and Vice-President Margot Wallström

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