From Surf Wiki (app.surf) — the open knowledge base

Regional council (France)

Elected assembly of a French region

Regionalist parties (REG)

A regional council () is the elected assembly of a region of France.

History

Regional councils were created by law on 5 July 1972. Originally they were simply consultative bodies consisting of the region's parliamentary representatives plus an equal number of members nominated by the departments and communes.

The decentralisation programme of 1982–1983 under President François Mitterrand provided for direct election which began in 1986 and increased the powers of the councils.

Operation

The assemblies elect their presidents who preside over the meetings and head the regional executive.

Electoral system

Before 2004

Between 1986 and 2004, regional councils were elected by closed list proportional representation. The Front National was frequently left with the balance of power as a result and this led to a change in the electoral law.

Since 2004

Since 2004 three quarters of the seats continue to be elected by proportional representation with each list having an equal number of male and female candidates. The other quarter are given to the list that received the most votes. In order to gain these top up seats, a list must have gained an absolute majority of the votes in the first round. If this has not been achieved a second round is held with each party that gained at least ten percent of the votes competing. The party that wins a plurality in this round gains the bonus seats. It is common in this round for lower ranking parties to withdraw in favour of parties they have entered into an alliance with.

This can however potentially mean that a list that gained fewer votes in the first round and thus fewer proportional seats can end up the overall winner.

List of councils

Current councils

Regional Council of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes
Regional Council of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté
Regional Council of Brittany
Regional Council of Centre-Val de Loire
Corsican Assembly
Regional Council of Grand Est
Regional Council of Guadeloupe
Regional Council of Hauts-de-France
Regional Council of Île-de-France
Regional Council of Normandy
Regional Council of Nouvelle-Aquitaine
Regional Council of Occitania
Regional Council of Pays de la Loire
Regional Council of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur
Regional Council of Réunion

Former councils

The following councils were disbanded after the merger of regions which came in effect since 1 January 2016:

Regional Council of Alsace
Regional Council of Aquitaine
Regional Council of Auvergne
Regional Council of Burgundy
Regional Council of Champagne-Ardenne
Regional Council of Franche-Comté
Regional Council of Languedoc-Roussillon
Regional Council of Limousin
Regional Council of Lorraine
Regional Council of Midi-Pyrénées
Regional Council of Nord-Pas-de-Calais
Regional Council of Lower Normandy
Regional Council of Upper Normandy
Regional Council of Picardy
Regional Council of Poitou-Charentes
Regional Council of Rhône-Alpes

References

"LOI n° 2015-29 du 16 janvier 2015 relative à la délimitation des régions, aux élections régionales et départementales et modifiant le calendrier électoral (1)".

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

regional-councils-of-france regions-of-france

Want to explore this topic further?

Ask Mako anything about Regional council (France) — get instant answers, deeper analysis, and related topics.

Research with Mako

Free with your Surf account

Content sourced from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

This content may have been generated or modified by AI. CloudSurf Software LLC is not responsible for the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of AI-generated content. Always verify important information from primary sources.

Report