Strong hints of blue on the Côte d’Azur

In both departments the UMP (Union pour un Mouvement Populaire) upped their support. It was a modest increase in the Alpes-Maritimes where the list led by Gaston Franco and Dominique Estrosi-Sassone won nearly 1,700 more votes than the left wing Parti Socialiste-Front de gauche-Europe-Ecologie rivals, that is an extra 50 when compared to 2004 (around 38.3% for the right compared to 37.8% for the left).

However in the Var, Hubert Falco’s team clinched 5,204 more votes, a huge improvement on 2004 when the left narrowly pipped the right to the post. As a result of Sunday’s vote, the department’s capital city of Toulon is the only French town of more than 100,000 inhabitants to keep to the right, although the left coalition came out on top in 98 municipalities compared to just 54 for the UMP, and one for the National Front.

In the Alpes-Maritimes the left took control of 99 municipalities, including the capital Nice, the UMP 62 and the NF two. However, the right kept control of all other major towns in the department apart from Grasse.

On a national level the socialist-led alliance took about 54% of the votes and the UMP 36% with a turnout of around 51%. In the PACA region the overall results look like this*: Michel Vauzelle for the PS-Front de Gauche-Europe Ecologie: 44.11% of votes - 72 seats; Thierry Mariani for the UMP: 33.02% of votes – 30 seats; Jean Marie Le Pen for the National Front: 22.87% - 21 seats Turnout for the PACA region was 52.21%. *Source: Nice-Matin. CL