This is part two of a five-part diary on France’s political geography.
[Note: Throughout this diary, I will be using the Partisan Voting Index. For those unfamiliar, a PVI of S+3 means that in an average election, the Socialists will receive 53% of the two-party vote, while a PVI of R+7 means the Republicans will receive 57%. In some areas, one of the minor parties earns more votes than one of the major parties. I will note areas with strong third-party presence but PVIs are going to be calculated among the two traditional major parites]
Here is a map of France, with the region being covered today in orange. This is Northwest France.
Pays de la Loire (5.5% of France’s population): This region, on France’s Atlantic Coast and also stretching inland, is not a part of France’s historically left-wing, anti-clerical Southwest. It contains the city of Nantes (metro 900,000), a significant city in France but a small enough one to be unknown across the ocean. The rest of the region, like Northwest France in general, is heavily agricultural.
Clik here to view.
Vendee, as touched upon in the first diary, was the site of a counter-revolution by loyalists to the Bourbon Dynasty. 240,000 Frenchmen died in this 3-year war, a stunningly high total given France’s population at the time (29 million). An equivalent total, given the US’s present population, would be a war which killed 2.6 million Americans. Ever since, the Vendee region has been heavily Catholic and conservative. As Catholicism has declined in France, the Vendee has moved to the center. In 1974, it stood at R+16, but today it is only R+6, still making it the only significantly right-of-center department in Western France. While the rural areas are conservative, its main town, La Roche, is not, sitting at S+10. This is among the largest disparities of any region in generally unpolarized France, larger than the neighboring department of Deux-Sevres.
Situated just north of Vendee is Loire Atlantique, which contains the city of Nantes. The department is S+5 thanks to the Nantes metro being one of France’s most left-wing, tying with Toulouse for that distinction. Both are S+11. Nantes and its suburbs are weak areas for the National Front. Nantes began to thrive in the 18th century due to the slave trade (it was the main port of departure to France’s colonies), and in the French Revolution it supported the revolutionaries in contrast to much of the region. In 1826, it created the world’s first public transit system, a horse-drawn bus. Today, the city itself is S+10, with suburbs ranging from Vertou (S+3) to Reze (S+17, with a strong Left presence as well). As with most rural areas in France, rural Loire Atlantique is nearly 50-50, currently S+2.
Historical Loire Atlantique is another matter. In 1974, this historically Catholic area was R+6; in the 1980s and 1990s it was nearly 50-50. The city of Nantes itself has leaped leftwards, as it was only S+3 in 1995.
Maine et Loire is located east of Nantes and contains the large town of Angers. Like Loire Atlantique, it has a right-wing past but has moved away from it. However, it has stagnated in its move recently, probably because it doesn’t have a major city like Nantes. Angers is S+5, although it was 50-50 in the 1995 election. Two other significant towns in the region are Cholet (S+3) and Saumur (R+5). The rural areas are R+4. Looking back a few elections, it was totally different. A 1974 PVI of R+12 slowly receded to R+5 in 1995 before a leap leftward in 2007. This leap was felt strongly in Angers and Cholet, modestly in the rural areas, and wasn’t felt at all in Cholet, France’s largest center for farm animal sales.
Mayenne, north of Angers (the map is incorrect and didn’t color it purple), contains a red town and blue rural areas, similar to Vendee or Maine et Loire but still a pretty unusual situation in France. The population center, Laval, is S+5, while the department is R+4, down from R+16 in 1974. This is a similar pattern to neighboring Maine et Loire.
Sarthe, the last of the five departments in Pays de la Loire, contains the town of Le Mans, best known for its auto race. Le Mans itself is S+9, but this mostly rural department is only S+2 and hasn’t seen the same leftward movement as its more coastal neighbors.
Bretagne (5.0% of France’s population): Better known in English as Brittany, this region has a Celtic heritage, a minor nationalist movement, and a history of autonomy within the French kingdom. More so than any other in the country, Bretagne has seen a sharp turn to the left as Catholicism, traditionally a major influence in rural northwestern France, has declined precipitously. Generally, Bretagne also has poor National Front performances, probably due to their lack of total support for the concept of French ethnic identity politics.
Clik here to view.
Morbihan, in southwest Bretagne, has the most obviously non-French name for a French department, was once R+11 but is now S+1. Its three towns vary in political makeup. Lorient, the largest, is S+8 and has moved away from the Republicans even more than the rest of Morbihan. Vannes, the next largest, is R+1. Finally, unlike a certain conservative family from a TV show, the citizens of Lanester love their left-wing politics. This working-class suburb of Lorient is S+14 and shows a strong affinity for France’s Left.
Finistere is France’s Maine, with a rugged coastline, windy weather, and independent politics. It has moved a full 15 points leftwards over the last thirty-eight years and is now S+7. Brest, one of the two main population centers in Bretagne, is S+11, while the smaller Quimper is S+12.
Cotes d’Armor, another coastal department, is S+8, while its main town of St. Brieuc is S+11.
Ille et Villaine contains Rennes, the largest city in Bretagne as it exists today (Nantes is a part of historical Bretagne). Public education (there are over 60,000 students in the city) and technology/telecommunications are both significant parts of Rennes’s economy; if Finistere is Maine Rennes is probably Boston. Thus it is no surprise that it is left-wing. However, Rennes also retains elements of an older economy, including a large auto industry. Ille et Villaine, today, a department which is S+5, was R+11 back in 1974; its shift has been as large as Finistere’s. No department anywhere in France moved either direction as quickly over the last forty years. Rennes itself is even further left; it sits at S+15 and has a strong Left party as well. St. Malo, a smaller coastal town also in this department, is S+1, more conservative than rural areas of the department.
Like almost everywhere else we will encounter for the rest of this diary series, Centre (3.9% of France’s population) is not that left-wing. The French left’s winning margins come almost exclusively from Western France (already profiled) and working-class areas of Paris and its banlieues, the poor, heavily Black and Arab suburbs. Centre has been stably centrist for decades.
Clik here to view.
Indre is the only department in Centre which is pretty safe for the Socialist Party, at S+3, although in a poor year it can easily go Republican. It contains the modestly left-wing town of Chateauroux and some swingy rural territory.
To Indre’s northwest is Indre et Loire, which contains some of France’s most fabulous chateaux as well as the small city of Tours. Tours is S+4, and its cosmopolitan nature makes it a poor fit for the National Front. Rural areas of the department are just a tad right of center.
Cher, in Centre’s southeast, is a sonny province (get it?). Presently, it’s S+2, with 50-50 rural areas and two more left-wing towns. Bourges, the larger one, is S+4 and still moving leftward, while formerly factory-heavy Vierzon is S+13 with a strong Left due to historically strong labor movements. Interestingly, Vierzon was split 50-50 during World War Two; half the city was part of Vichy France while half was occupied by the Nazis.
Loir et Cher is in Centre’s center and also contains many chateaux. Its rural areas are more conservative than in most of this region, giving it a light blue hue (R+3). This has been a new development and I am not sure what has caused it, although neighboring Eure et Loir, in Centre’s north, has had the same occurrence and today is R+5. The town of Blois is S+5, while Chartres, home to a famed cathedral, is S+1 and Dreux is S+10 and marching ever leftward for reasons I do not understand.
Loiret has always been a bit more conservative than the rest of the region, although now for the first time in decades it is not the most conservative of the 6 departments. Orleans is an S+2 large town, but conservative rural territory makes the department R+5.
Rural Basse Normandie (2.2% of France’s population) is best known as the site of the D-Day invasion; politically speaking it is a battleground (pardon the pun) with perhaps the slightest tilt toward the Republicans.
Clik here to view.
Manche, the northward-extending part of the region, has much in common with its Breton neighbors to the west. Like them, it was once deep blue (R+14 in the 1974 election) but has now moved left all the way down to R+2. Its main town, Cherbourg, has done the same, ending up at S+7. Its main attraction is the stunning Mont-St. Michel.
Orne is the most conservative part of this geographically small region, similar to neighboring areas to the east. It sits at R+5, with the main town of Alencon at S+5.
Finally, there is Calvados, France’s other obviously non-French named department. Calvados contains history from medieval and present times, with the Bayeux tapestry and Omaha Beach both contained within its borders, as well as the heavily-bombed city of Caen. Caen today has a major agricultural industry and a university. I would guess the university is the main region it is S+8 and is an unusually weak area for the National Front relative to most of northern France; the city has also reacted poorly to Sarkozy. Working-class Herouville-St. Clair, just outside Caen, is an industrial suburb with a strong union movement which sprung up from nothing in the 1960s and 1970s. At S+21, it is one of the most left-wing places in the nation. The smaller town of Lisieux helps temper Calvados’s left-wing side, coming in at S+1; the department as a whole is S+2.
Haute-Normandie (2.8% of France’s population) has traditionally been very industrial. It is swingy and contains only two departments. Haute-Normandie, unlike most of France but similar to much of France’s far north, has seen some movement to the right among its rural voters.
Clik here to view.
To the south is Eure, which is conservative except for the S+3 town of Evreux. Eure itself is R+4 despite a swingy heritage thanks to this rural rightward movement.
On the coast is Seine Maritime, which contains the dual cities of Le Havre and Rouen. Its rural territory has also shifted to the right, from S+4 in 1995 to S+1 today. Rouen, the smaller of the two cities, was where Joan of Arc was executed. Many centuries later, it was one of France’s two heavily bombed cities (along with Caen) in the aftermath of D-Day. Like Caen, its university is very important to the local economy. Politically, it has moved from swingy to S+7 due to Sarkozy; like Caen it has a weak National Front. The port city of Le Havre contains France’s largest container port. It is S+5 but has a stronger Socialist heritage than Rouen does. Both Caen and Rouen’s suburbs are working-class and further left than the cities, which means together all cities and suburbs in Seine Maritime are S+9. This makes the department S+3, helping to even out Eure.
Contrary to the map posted at the beginning, I will be saving France’s actual north for Part 3 as this took longer than I expected.
This concludes Part 2 of my diary. I hope you learned something and enjoyed!