Aucamville Project: 3: Regional election results

You may have read that Sarkozy's ruling UMP was dealt a blow in yesterday's first round of regional elections, where in an expression of general discontent the citizens of France swung over to the Socialists. The NYT report makes note of the "record abstention" and that:

"What struck French analysts was the good performance of a coalition of green parties, known as Europe Ecology, led by Daniel Cohn-Bendit, and the revival of the far-right, anti-immigrant National Front, which was running almost even with the ecologists for third place."

Aucamville would appear to fall exactly in line with the national trend.

As you can see from the table on the following page (official results):

In Aucamville there are 709 registered votes. 320 abstained! Of the remaining 389 voters, 12 turned in blank ballots, leaving 377 people who expressed a preference.

119 voters, or 31.56%, chose the Socialist Party. Sarkozy's UMP was a close second at 106 votes, or 28.12% of the electorate. Perhaps most disconcerting, though unsurprising, was the 3rd place showing for the far right Front National, with 54 votes (14.33%). On the other hand, the Greens did surprisingly well, hot on the heels of the FN with 49 votes (13%).

The rest of the vote was split, again, much to my surprise, among various far left parties. The Communists pulled in 16 votes (4.24%), while two far left coalitions pulled in 7 (1.86%) and 16 (4.24%) votes each.

This means that the center and far right got 160 votes (or 42.44%) as opposed to the center and far left who got 207 votes (54.9%). This leaves the resolute center, represented by the centrist wing of the centrist MoDem (Mouvement démocrate) with 10, or (2.65%).

So, depending on your proclivities, this will gladden your heart or darken your brow.