Here are theresults for the First Round of the Regional Elections;

Parti Socialiste: 29.5%
UMP: 27%
Europe Ecologie: 12.5%
Front National: 11.7%
Front de Gauche: 6.2%
Modem: 4%
Extreme Gauche: 3.7%
Participation: VERY LOW around 46.5%
Conclusions:

This is the worst score the UMP has ever had. Sarkozy was nowhere to be seen the entire night, and typically the Prime Minister, Francois Fillon was left [...]

Tomorrow I return to France to help the Parti Socialiste in the Regional Elections on Sundays the 14th and the 22nd. I’ve written previously about the corner I’ll be fighting in Provence-Alpes-Cote d’Azur here and here, and more recently about the polls predicting a socialist victory here.
The lead is not restricted to PACA though, as [...]

The phrase National Identity has become increasingly familiar in current political discourse, despite the fact that nationalism and nationhood are far from being new ideas in Europe.
Typically, it is the Right and Far-Right which profits from and occupies itself with concerns over identity. Excluding Gordon Brown’s occasional remarks on possibly considering planning a “British Day” [...]

It is a cruel coincidence that on the same day I have to spend 45 euros on “fiscal stamps” for official documents and suchlike (hence lack of blogging), Mayor of Nice Christian Estrosi gets into trouble for not knowing the price of a normal stamp. Rather, he gets in trouble for not knowing when to [...]

French Culture Minister Frédéric Mitterrand was fighting to keep his job last night, having been ensnared by a scandal of his own making.
The row began with his defence of famous film director Roman Polanski, (arrested with charges of paedophilia) where he said that the affair was “absolutely horrifying” before launching an attack on the USA. [...]