AFSP Webinar #7 – French Regions: Autonomous Political Entities?

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, you must register hereusing the online form

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

Six years later, where do France’s regions stand? Have the mergers and new powers strengthened them? Are there differences in the policies implemented from one region to another? Are their policies proving to be innovative? Are the regions truly autonomous political entities clearly identified by voters, as the high profile of some of their presidents might suggest? To what extent are regional elections primarily midterm elections rather than being driven by regional issues? Conversely, are we witnessing the emergence of distinct partisan alliance dynamics that vary by region?

Featuring:

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

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

More information:Link