AFSP Webinar #7 – French regions: autonomous political spaces?

AFSP Webinar #7

French regions: autonomous political entities?

Tuesday, June 1, 2021, from 5:00 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.

To participate in the webinar and interact via ZOOM, registration is required herevia the online form.

Compared to many other countries in the European Union, French regions have limited political capacity: limited budgets and tax resources, competition with departments and metropolitan areas. The merger of several of them in 2014, decided by the central government against their will, confirmed their fragility. However, at the same time, the MAPTAM and NOTRe laws (2014 and 2015) gave them new powers, including the management of European structural funds and the development of prescriptive territorial plans.

Six years later, where do France's regions stand? Have mergers and new powers strengthened them? Are there differences in the policies pursued from one region to another? Are their policies innovative? Are the regions truly autonomous political entities that are clearly identified by voters, as the personalization of some of their presidents might suggest? To what extent are regional elections primarily midterm elections rather than elections focused on regional issues? Conversely, are we seeing the emergence of different partisan alliances depending on the region?

With the participation of:

• Anne-Cécile Douillet, professor of political science at the University of Lille, researcher at CERAPS
• Emmanuel Négrier, Director of Research at CNRS, CEPEL-University of Montpellier
• Romain Pasquier, Director of Research at CNRS, ARENES, Sciences Po Rennes

Webinar organized and moderated by Frédéric Sawicki, professor of political science at Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University, researcher at CESSP, and member of the AFSP board.

More information:Link