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This is the younger sister of this summer’s electoral round and it risks being overshadowed by the national stakes of its elder sister, the regional election. However, voters (at least the minority who will go out to vote) will receive two ballots, and one will concern the candidates from their district. A very high abstention rate is expected, with more than 50% of eligible voters not voting.
The competencies of this local authority are:
– Social: social aid and particularly the management (delegated by the state) of the RSA (54% of the budget, including RSA 30%)
– Spatial planning: water, departmental roads, fire services… (7%)
– Management of middle schools (6%)
The electoral campaign was influenced by the health situation, which prevented large public meetings. Candidates traveled throughout their districts to spread their message, meaning their ideas and image. Then, social media did the rest.
Candidates’ promise boxes worked at full capacity. Especially in rural municipalities, “concrete” arguments are needed to win voters’ favor. Sophistry doesn’t make an impact.
One of the major themes was, of course, security. Although not everything falls under departmental competencies, candidates took on the role of sheriff. Hasn’t the strongman of the departmental council, Eric Ciotti, always been a Minister of the Interior in pectore? So the reasoning is simple: give me power, and you’ll see what will happen! The Alpes-Maritimes department (with 1,082,440 inhabitants) comprises 54 departmental advisors from 27 districts. The current president, Charles-Ange Ginesy, is running for re-election. 110 mixed-gender pairs are standing in these elections.
In 2015, the Union of the Right (LR+UDI) was allocated the majority of 50 seats. The French Communist Party PCF holds two seats. The Socialist Party PS has one, as do the ecologists.
The department is strongly right-leaning, so the result is not in doubt. We can only speculate on the leftist lists’ ability to maintain their presence in the assembly while the Rassemblement National will play the role of the outsider, taking advantage of the momentum of the regional election.
The Preliminary Budget for 2021 is 1.578 billion euros and naturally, the outcome will be affected by the exceptional situation of recent months.
Several current mayors are running as candidates. Among them, we can note Joseph Segura, the mayor of Saint-Laurent-du-Var. This is also the case for David Lisnard, LR mayor of Cannes. The same goes for Jérôme Viaud, LR mayor of Grasse.
