Travel another way

On March 9 and 19, the French are to renew their mayor and local councillors in all  French municipalities (France has almost 37,000 cities, towns, villages…altogether). Voters are all French citizens and  residents issued from European Union countries over 18. Voting days are always held on Sundays. The mayor and his/her municipal councillors are elected for a six-year term by direct universal suffrage.

In small towns and villages, people do not always vote according to their political views, but see the candidate as a person, because they personally know him/her and his/her competence.  However, winning a major city is very inportant for political parties. Paris, for example,  has been run by  socialist mayor Bertrand Delanoe, for 6 years and right-wing leaders are dying to get his position.   His main opponent is Françoise de Panafieu from UMP, President Sarkozy’s conservative party.

This election will be regarded as a national political survey that will tell President Sarkozy if people are satisfied with his policy. Journalists and survey specialists are anticipating a severe defeat for his party but everybody knows that surveys can be wrong …