Outgoing presidents re-elected in French regionals

The outgoing presidents of the regions are to remain in office after 65.7% of voters did not show up to vote in the second round of the regional elections Sunday, an Ipsos/Sopra Steria estimate for France Télévisions reads.

Occitania, New Aquitaine and Brittany remain in the hands of the Socialists with Carole Delga, Alain Rousset and Loïg Chesnais-Girard. Marie-Guite Dufay also maintains the presidency of the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region, as does François Bonneau in Centre-Val-de-Loire, thanks to a union with the ecologists.

Far-right leader Marine Le Pen’s Rassemblement National (RN) did not win in any of the regions. The Republican front led by Renaud Muselier (Les Républicains) kept the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region with 55.7%, beating RN candidate Thierry Mariani. The party also lost out in Hauts-de-France, Occitanie and Bourgogne Franche-Comté.

In Normandy, outgoing centre-right candidate Hervé Morin came out first. Voters also backed outgoing right-wing presidents Jean Rottner in the Grand Est region, Laurent Wauquiez in the Auvergne Rhône-Alpes, Xavier Bertrand in the Hauts-de-France and Valérie Pécresse in Île-de-France. In Corsica, the autonomist Gilles Simeoni also came out on top.

In the first round of the elections, voter turnout was also low with a 66.72% abstention rate.

(Anne Damiani | EURACTIV.fr)