gay activists in paris focused on eliminating the previous district mayors and candidates who actively opposed the PACS. the PACS is a 'contract' between 2 persons that is not like a wedding in many ways but at least recognizes legally the coexistence of 2 individuals (whatever their sex, thus recognizing homosexual couples to a certain extent). in all the cases the gay groups made it.
as a complement to Brad on 'non communist parties', FO (force ouvriere) and LCR (ligue communiste revolutionnaire) are 4th international groups and they have been more and more popular since winter 95, as well as a lot of LCR related unions (SUD branch unions).
i was surprised to discover that the paris mayor elections are pretty much like the us presidential elections : district councils elect the city mayor. in this year's case the left will have delanoe since they hold more than 50% of the district seats but:
-the right (all together) says they have won the popular vote so this system is unfair -seguin (the right's the official candidate, against tiberi, the rebel) says if it had been direct elections in two rounds he would be the mayor.
just like florida, their has been a vote affair, but in a reverse way : after the 95 elections many people realized that a lot of voters on the lists were actually not supposed to be there. they had been recorded in districts where they did not live anymore, some where actually dead, others living outside paris and many recorded in more than one district. the cleaning up of the lists led to a 100,000+ purge not without mistakes though. the whole system had been set up by chirac's team to make sure he would keep the power. i am not sure the purge played a big role in the left's victory, but i suppose we'll have analysis in the near future.
another thing, the multiple left (La Gauche Multiple as they like to call themselves) has lost none of the districts they had won in the last elections (which must have been 6 years ago, 1995, when chirac got elected). plus they won Lyon, the second biggest city in France.
as elizabeth mentions, the rest is not so well cut. most of Jospin's ministers lost and the right made it in a lot of +15000 cities. the pcf is the biggest loser (to no surprise) and this might lead to another modification in the government in the green's favor (that would be the second).
as for a political advantage jospin would have over chirac... considering most of jospin's minister's either failed or made it by a very tight margin it can't be said that the voters expressed a clear support to jospin. rather they focused on local politics and that is why the right seems to have made it in many important provincial cities. but it is sure that a left paris will make a difference in the 2 coming years (presidential & parliament elections in 2002).
the extreme right lost toulon, their biggest city and they were much less present in the second round (more than a 100 lists 6 years ago, 30 something this year) mostly because the FN (front national) split in two. in some of the cities the FN had gained in 95 , the FN mayor decided to change of affiliation after the elections, or was expeled from the FN for not respecting party policies thus leading to an even smaller nb of extreme right controled cities.
another complement, for michael, the toulouse alternative list 'moderees' (?) seemed to have been very popular because of the presence of local musician activists including zebda, a(n underground) musician famous in all the country. but it was not enough to counter the right.
and even though all this is pretty good (esp for paris) there seem to be no plan for a paris commune comming in the next 6 years. but who knows.
jc helary