Bertrand Delanoe reelected

[Anne]

Yesterday was the second round (?) of the municipal elections in France . Socialists lists got 57.7% of the votes in Paris, which means that Bertrand Delanoe will be reelected as the mayor of Paris this week . Not that this is much of a surprise ...
Municipal elections are a big thing in France because mayors are really powerful, this is not an honorary function like in England for example .

Also, Delanoe's large victory will help him to fight Ségolène Royal in order to become the Head of the Socialist party next summer (the current Socialist leader is Royal's former companion) . One of the main reason why they fight for this is that the leader of the party will have a great advantage in order to become the official Socialist candidate for the 2012 presidential elections .

[Truffaut]

Yeah!!! Delanöe is extremely popular with most Parisians, and he's done some really terrific things (Vélib, Nuits Blanches, Paris Plage, etc.) He's not been very popular with many small shopkeepers, who've seen the parking spaces for the customers disappear in the new "green zones", however. Thank goodness he was elected instead of that shrew de Panafieu--hideous, really. Of course, that means we are still saddled with her in the 17th.

[Anne]

Yes Truffy, you're in for another good 6 years with Françoise !

As for Luc, a new (at least to my knowledge) Socialist guy called Bloche has been elected in the 11th arr.

Here is the new political "face" of Paris, by arrondissements :



"gauche" means Socialists (always symbolized by the pink colour)
"droite" means conservatives (even if we don't call them that way here)
"verts" means Ecologists

[mez]

Thanks for the graph Anne.

I've never really thought about what left and right political parties are called in foreign languages - and it's the same! Even the Greens

Mez

[Truffaut]

It seems funny that the Verts are in control of the 2nd--surely the bleakest, un-greenest part of Paris!

[Truffaut]

It seems there was great surprise that the UMP was able to hold on to all the mairies they had entering the race. Wasn't the general thought that there would be a noticeable shift to the left?

[Anne]

Yes, Paris was not a disaster for the Right .
But many many cities have switched to Left : Strasbourg, Metz, Reims, Rouen, Toulouse, ... some of them had been Right for ages . As far as the very big cities are concerned, only Marseille does still belong to the Right .

[Darcy]

I think Paris doesn't know it's gauche from it's droite!

[phread]

I was so sad for my arron. We're stuck with Rachida Dati, as if she doesn't have enough on her plate already!!!

Just to explain to Americans, you don't really vote for the mayor of Paris. You vote for the Mayor of your arrodisement. And even then, you actually vote for his/her liste (council). The one with the most votes wins the most seats and their 'Head", or leader, becomes Mayor.

[cybee]

I guess I don't know much about this mayor business, but I am learning a wee bit but still am quite muddled! Rachita Dati is the mayor of your arrondissement, Phread?! Yes, I would think she already has too much on her plate (Justice Ministers can also be mayors?)! So you vote for, in this case, "counsel" to Dati (or choice of arrondissement mayor) to determine the arrondissement mayor. So then, is the mayor of all of Paris proper then determined by the party receiving the most mayors of arrondissements (or overall percentage of vote..oh, looking at Anne's initial post herein, it appears to be the latter). Are these arrondissement mayors also called counsel (as to the Paris mayor)? Sacre bleu! (there is some sense to have this layered system to a certain extent as certainly one mayor for the entire city may prove too difficile!)
I was just reading last night that the Paris mayor does not govern banlieues (beyond the peripherique)....albeit there are some politicians starting to contemplate the idea of "Greater Paris" (Sarkozy) and even Delanoe has spoken of "Paris Metropole" (i.e. annexing suburbs).

[Anne]

Hey Truffy, you won't believe it : Françoise de Panafieu announced yesterday that, since she proved unable to take the mairie de Paris from Delanoë, she has decided to GIVE UP THE MAIRIE OF THE XVIIe !
A very nasty fight followed in order to decide who would get the mairie now, and finally a Brigitte Kuster won the fight (she had the support of FdP, which means that she may follow her line of politics later on ) . FdP will remain conseillère d'arrondissement and conseillère de Paris though .

Hope that this will make your day !

[Anne]

Cybee - Yes, a minister can be a mayor too . Actually, many professional politician have several "jobs", although a recent law does limitate the plurality of offices .

After voters have elected the conseillers d'arrondissements (who will subsequently elect the maire d'arrondissement), each conseil d'arrondissement will then elect some of its members who will also become Conseillers de Paris (163 in all) . The Conseil de Paris then elects the maire de Paris . So yes, this is a layer system which also applies in Lyon and Marseille . And yes, the maires d'arrondissements are also conseillers de Paris .

The "Grand Paris" or "Paris Metropole" are not about annexing the suburbs (that would create quite a shock !) , I think that it is more a "Communauté de communes", i.e. nearby towns which group together in order to share some ressources, investments and expenses . There are many such Communautés de communes all over France .

[Truffaut]

That's wonderful news! She never liked leaving Ternes to spend her days at the mairie in Batignolles, and we never particularly liked having her there, so now everybody's happy ;D

[cybee]

Merci, Anne266~ ! I was obviously struggling to understand the system (as to Mayors,etc.) , but found your explanation most helpful! (also about the "Grand Paris" idea...yes, your explanation clarifies that greatly! Again, merci!)