Departmental Elections 2015: 18,02% participation at noon – Les Echos

At noon the turnout stood at 18.02%, a figure up from the cantonal elections of 2011. The polling stations open at 8 am in France, except in Paris and Lyon where there is no vote.

Polling stations opened Sunday at 8:00 in the first round of elections county, but among some 43 million voters concerned, many may shun a poll that looks disastrous for the government. At noon, the turnout stood at 18.02% , a figure up from the 2011 cantonal elections (15.7%) and the European election in May 2014 (15.7%). However, it is less than the rate of participation in the first round of municipal March 2014 (23.16%).

What changes

& gt; So far, county councils, responsible for managing departments , were renewed by half in principle every three years. This time, the county councils , as they will now be called, are all elected at the same time six .

& gt; The voting system is unique: in each of the 2,054 cantons, will be elected a binomial gender , whereas previously in each of the former townships 4.035, smaller in size, was appointed a only elected

& gt;. does not apply to the cities of Paris and Lyon , where the functions of the county councils are exercised by other bodies (such as the Council of Paris in the capital) nor the majority of overseas, where the status of the department is becoming increasingly rare

& gt;. The only ultramarine departments to the polls are Reunion and Mayotte , which, because of the time difference, vote for 5 pm and 6 am (Paris time), and Guadeloupe where voting will begin at midday

Read also & gt; & gt; Departmental 2015. eight questions on a new poll

The polls will be open up to 20 hours in Bordeaux, Marseille, Nantes, Toulouse and Paris. They close at 19 hours in many medium-sized cities (Brest, Dijon, Chambéry, Toulon, Tours ..) and 18 hours in rural areas. However, a question remains on the failure, which could reach and exceed the already dizzying levels of the last local elections of 2011 (55.7% in the first round) and the European elections in May (57.5%).

The UMP and FN are competing to get ahead of the elections. If the PS is disabled position, the right (UMP-UDI) is neck-and-neck with the National Front Marine Le Pen, with its 25% of votes in the EU, has been at the heart of the campaign and hope at least triumph in the Vaucluse, and to a lesser extent in the Aisne and the Oise and in the Var, currently held by the UMP department.

The mystery of the departments

The lack of knowledge or ignorance of the role and powers of the departments is very much in the figure is probably higher abstention. Departments, mainly charge of social action and college equipment should also be removed by Francois Hollande and Manuel Valls, who eventually changed her mind.

The left cheek also big because, given the current political map of departments (she administers 61 of 101), it could lose 20 or 30 or more. Manuel Valls has so tirelessly for this poll and literally started a “fight” against the National Front and its president; sometimes contested choice even in his own camp. Nicolas Sarkozy’s UMP and the UDI, which are united in the great majority of cantons, while the plurality of applications on the left is the rule in three quarters of cases, are thoroughly enjoy this bleeding: Corrèze , earth François Hollande, the Val-de-Marne , only still Communist department with the Allier , Seine-Saint-Denis , home of the President of the National Assembly Claude Bartolone (PS), the Haute-Garonne , where reigns the radical leftist Jean-Michel Baylet: these territories could be symbolic victories for right and center.

Three Steps

Sunday’s election is the first of three steps. The challenge of the first round is to be called for the second, a goal that very few pairs came in third can reach as a threshold equal to 12.5% ​​of registered voters is then required. The stakes are high for the PS, which risks being eliminated many cantons.

The second round next Sunday, which will no doubt flourish again debates on “republican front” PS -The it undertakes, the UMP willing to admit where the FN deliver a duel, allow conquest cantons . But we really will not know how many departments have switched in the following days at the election of the presidents of county councils , which will remain uncertain wherever any of the three camps in the presence -Left, right, Fn will have the majority.

Finally, a possible reshuffle could be the order of the day, even if François Hollande has already warned that it would not change “neither line nor Prime Minister” .