Parti socialiste alive and well in France!  

17 March 2008

The PES congratulates the Parti Socialiste for its victory yesterday in the French local elections. The Parti Socialiste won a majority of the total vote in local elections and is now the leading party in the towns, regions and départments of France.

The left won 44 towns with more than 20,000 inhabitants, and came out on top in 24 of the 36 towns with more than 100,000 inhabitants. Paris, Lyon, Nantes and Lille gave huge votes of confidence to Mayors Bertrand Delanoë, Gérard Collomb, Jean-Marc Ayrault and Martine Aubry, while Toulouse and Strasbourg now have Socialist Mayors following the victories of Pierre Cohen and Roland Ries. Metz, held by the right since 1848, went Socialist, as did Périgueux , Angoulême, Amiens, Reims and Quimper.

The left was also the winner in the départments. It already controlled the majority of French departments, and won some additional ones yesterday.
 
Poul Nyrup Rasmussen, President of the PES, congratulated François Hollande for the victory of the Parti Socialiste. He said “I congratulate the Socialist Mayors and councillors who have gained the trust of voters to run the towns and departments of France. They have listened to the people, they have an excellent record in local government and some very ambitious projects for the future. Nicolas Sarkozy should learn some lessons from these local elections, notably about the content and style of making reforms in France, and should concentrate on the number one concern of the French people which is the purchasing power of the citizens.”
     
“The Parti Socialiste is alive and well in the cities and villages of France. Following the victory in Spain it gives us great hope.”