In his general policy statement, Prime Minister Manuel Valls proposed “to halve the number of regions in mainland France” (currently 22, not including the four overseas regions) and “to initiate a debate on the future of the departmental councils” by proposing their abolition by 2021.
As is always the case when consolidated situations (and interests) are affected, reactions were not slow to surface. The president of the Assembly of French Departments (ADF), Claudy Lebreton (PS), declared himself on Tuesday “stunned” and even denounced a “brutal” method.
It is easy to predict that the road ahead is still long before a decision is made, but this chapter will be one of the most significant of the government’s intentions and highlights a sensitive point in the State’s organization: Should we remind ourselves that the General Councils were created by Napoleon I?
The relevance of a territory cannot be defined a priori because it depends on the scale of what we are talking about. And this scale varies depending on the topics. Concerning the contemporary reality of administrative divisions, the most relevant are undoubtedly intercommunal cooperations and the region.
The department, as a political structure based on cantons, no longer makes much sense and could be transformed into a public institution managing social affairs within the framework of redefining the competencies of local authorities.
That said, France is not a homogeneous territory, and the role of departments is not the same in a rural region compared to the Paris region. In reality, in a modern vision, project territories must take precedence over administrative territories to induce development dynamics, which are linked to the interplay between metropolitan areas and regions.
This model is the key to success if a territory wants to become or remain attractive and competitive on an international level.
