French municipal elections, 2001

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Municipal elections were held in France on March 11 and 18 2001. These elections were marked by a setback for the left and a victory for the right one year before the 2002 presidential election. However, the capital, Paris and the second largest city, Lyon both switched to the left.

Following the second round, the right controlled 318 municipalities, the left 259.

The next elections were scheduled for 2007 but were re-scheduled to 2008 not to interfere with legislative and presidential elections in 2007.

Contents

[edit] Results in Major Cities

City Population (1999) Incumbent Elected
Paris 2 125 246 Jean Tiberi Bertrand Delanoë
Marseille 798 430 Jean-Claude Gaudin
Lyon 445 452 Raymond Barre Gérard Collomb
Toulouse 390 350 Dominique Baudis Philippe Douste-Blazy
Nice 342 738 Jacques Peyrat
Nantes 270 251 Jean-Marc Ayrault
Strasbourg 264 115 Catherine Trautmann Fabienne Keller
Montpellier 225 392 Georges Frêche
Bordeaux 215 363 Alain Juppé
Lille 212 597 Pierre Mauroy Martine Aubry
Rennes 206 229 Edmond Hervé
Le Havre 190 905 Antoine Rufenacht
Reims 187 206 Jean-Louis Schneiter
Saint-Etienne 180 210 Michel Thiollière
Toulon 160 639 Jean-Marie Le Chevallier Hubert Falco
Grenoble 153 317 Michel Destot
Angers 151 279 Jean-Claude Antonini
Dijon 149 867 Robert Poujade François Rebsamen
Brest 149 634 Pierre Maille François Cuillandre
Le Mans 146 105 Robert Jarry Jean-Claude Boulard
Clermont-Ferrand 137 140 Serge Godard
Amiens 135 510 Gilles de Robien
Aix-en-Provence 134 222 Jean-François Picheral Maryse Joissains Masini
Limoges 137 140 Alain Rodet
Nimes 133 424 Alain Clary Jean-Paul Fournier
Limoges 132 820 Jean Germain

[edit] Municipal Councillors of cities with 35,000+ population

Party/Alliance Seats
  PS-PCF-MDC-PRG 9775
  RPR-UDF-DL 9722
Miscellaneous Right 5873
Miscellaneous Left 2518
  Miscellaneous 649
  MNR 157
  Les Verts 123
  FN 106
  Ecologists 48
  Far-Left 41
  Regionalists 13

[edit] Results by Party

[edit] Left (PS, PCF, Greens)

[edit] Communists

After the loss of Le Havre after the preceding municipal elections, the Communist Party lost the cities which it had managed to reconquer in 1995 (Ciotat, Sète, Nimes) like some of its former bastions (Drancy, Argenteuil, Dieppe, Montlucon).

The gain of Sevran or Arles (from the Socialist Party) were not enough to reverse the progressive collapse of “municipal Communism”, a tendency already started since the 1983 election (with the loss of Nimes, Sète, Reims, Levallois-Perret,Antony, or Sevres) and confirmed in 1989 with the loss of Amiens.

[edit] Socialists

Catherine Trautmann, defeated in Strasbourg by the UDF
Catherine Trautmann, defeated in Strasbourg by the UDF

As for the French Socialist Party lost in total 23 cities of more than thirty thousand inhabitants, whereas several party personalities undergo defeat in their respective towns. Catherine Trautmann, Minister of Culture, is not re-elected in Strasbourg, like Jack Lang in Blois. In Avignon, Elisabeth Guigou fails to unseat the RPR incumbent, Marie-Josée Roig. Martine Aubry becomes mayor of Lille only with 49.6% of the votes (and with a 53% abstention) in this city historically solid for the Socialists. Their victories in several cities such as Ajaccio, Auxerre (helped by the presence of two right-wing candidates in the second round), Dijon, or Salon-de-Provence, or in the major cities of Paris and Lyon, do not counterbalance the party's loses.

[edit] The Greens

The Green, progress importantly by the first round- they carry Saumur with over 50% by the first round. The Greens start to emerge as the second most important party in the "plural left" after the Socialist Party, to the disadvantage of the Communists. In Besançon, they obtain more than 16% of the votes.

In Paris and Lyon, their support of the PS in the second round contributes to the victory of the left there.

[edit] Far-Left (LO, LCR)

[edit] Workers' Struggle

Workers' Struggle ran 128 lists in 109 different cities, which won 4.37% of the votes, or 120,347 votes. LO obtained 33 councillors including 11 women, in 22 different cities, without amalgamating its lists with those of the plural left in the second round.

[edit] Revolutionary Communist League

Revolutionary Communist League ran or "supported" (according to their terms) 91 lists, common with various coalition partners. It obtained 4.52%, or 93,182 votes. By the first round, these lists obtained 26 elected officials. Several lists then amalgamated with lists of the plural left, including of the MDC.

[edit] Right (RPR, UDF, DL)

The parliamentary right compensated for the defeats it suffered in Lyon and Paris by important gains: it gained forty municipalities of more than 15,000 inhabitants in addition to those which it already controlled, and gains from the left several towns of 30,000 inhabitants, among which:

  • Rouen: Pierre Albertini (UDF) is elected with 51.25% of the voices, against the outgoing mayor Yvon Robert (who had conquered the city in 1995).
  • Aix-en-Provence: victory of Maryse Joissains-Masini (DVD) with 50.60% of the voices against 49.40% for Jean-François Picheral (PS), mayor since 1989.
  • Nimes: the Communist mayor Alain Clary (elected in 1995 in a four-way runoff) obtained only 44.33% of the votes, which allowed Jean-Paul Fournier (RPR) (55.66% of the voices) to be elected.
  • Quimper: Alain Gerard (RPR) reconquered the city (52.13% of the votes), from the Socialist Jean-Claude Joseph (47.87%).
  • Blois: Nicolas Perruchot (UDF) defeats the Minister for National Education Jack Lang by 37 votes(45.31% of the votes against 45.09%) in spite of the presence of the candidate of the FN.

It holds the towns of Toulouse, Marseille and Nice with the victory of the lists led by Philippe Douste-Blazy in the first (55% of the votes), by Jean-Claude Gaudin in the second (48.5% of the votes) and by Jacques Peyrat in the last (44.48% of the votes).

[edit] Far-Right (FN, MNR)

In 1995, the candidates of the FN had carried the towns of Toulon, Marignane, Orange and later Vitrolles in 1997. In 2001, Jean-Marie Le Chevallier, mayor of Toulon (MNR, ex-FN) was beaten by the first round, obtaining only 7.78% of the votes. The mayor of Orange Jacques Bompard (FN, now MPF) was re-elected by the first round and the mayor of Marignane, Daniel Simonpieri (MNR), by the second round with 62.52% of the votes, against 37.48% for Guy Martin (DL). In Vitrolles, Catherine Mégret (MNR) was initially re-elected with 45.32% of the voices against 44.07% for Domenica Tichadou (PS) but her election was invalidated afterwards. She will be finally beaten by Guy Obino (PS) in 2002.

The strong presence of both MNR and FN lists in numerous cities caused the failure of many far-right candidates to reach the runoff, as many FN candidates had done in 1995.

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