Regional elections were held in France on 6 and 13 December 2015. At stake were the regional councils in metropolitan and overseas France including the Corsican Assembly and inaugural seats in the Assembly of French Guiana and Assembly of Martinique, all for a six-year term. The Departmental Council of Mayotte, which also exercises the powers of a region, was the only region not participating in this election, having already been renewed on 2 April 2015. There were 18 regional presidencies at stake, with 13 in mainland France and Corsica, as well as 5 overseas. Though they do not have legislative autonomy, these territorial collectivities manage sizable budgets. Moreover, regional elections are often taken as a mid-term opinion poll.

Quick Facts All 17 regional presidenciesAll 1,757 regional councillors All 153 territorial councillors, First party ...

2015 French regional elections

← 2010 6 and 13 December 2015 2021 →
All 17 regional presidencies All 1,757 regional councillors All 153 territorial councillors
First party Second party Third party   Leader Nicolas Sarkozy Jean-Christophe Cambadélis Marine Le Pen Party LR PS FN Regions won 7 + 1 (UDI) 5 + 1 (GUSR) + 1 (GR) 0 Change 5 15 First round 5,785,073 26.65% 0.63 5,019,723 23.12% 6.02 6,018,672 27.73% 16.31 Second round 10,127,196 40.24% 4.87 7,263,567 28.86% 20.66 6,820,147 27.10% 17.93
Second round results by region.   The Republicans and Union of Democrats and Independents   Socialist Party   Regionalists   Miscellaneous left

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These elections were the first to be held for the redrawn regions: the 27 regions of France were amalgamated into 18, this went into effect on 1 January 2016.^[1][2]

The election saw a huge swing away from the centre-left Socialist Party, as well as a small swing to the centre-right Republicans. However, there was a double-digit swing to the right-wing National Rally in both the first round and the second round. Despite this, National Rally did not win any regional presidencies.

The regional elections are held in direct universal suffrage using proportional representation lists. The election is held over two rounds, with majority bonus. The lists must be gender balanced by alternatively have a male candidate and a female candidate from the top to the bottom of the list. Only lists with as many candidates as available seats^[3] in every departement of the region may compete. Before 2004, lists could be presented only at the departement level, allowing smaller parties (e.g. Hunting, Fishing, Nature, Tradition, Alsace d'abord, Lutte Ouvrière, Revolutionary Communist League) to be represented as such in the regional councils and thus forcing major parties to enter into negotiations to rule some regions.

Following the 1999 and 2003 electoral reforms, with a first implementation in 2004, a two-round runoff voting system is used to elect the regional presidents.^[4] If no party gets at least 50% of the vote in the first round, a second round is held, which any party who got at least 10% in the first round may enter. Lists that obtain at least 5% of the vote in the first round may merge in the second round with a 'qualified list', which includes candidates from each merged list.

At the decisive round (first round if a list won 50%, the second round if not), the leading list receives a premium of 25% of the seats while the remaining seats are distributed among all lists who received at least 5% of votes. Thus, the majority bonus allows a leading list to have an absolute majority of seats in the Regional Council from one-third of votes in the second round. The seats are distributed among the lists at the regional level but within each list, seats are allocated by departement branch in proportion to the number of votes in each department.

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France uses a two-round runoff system to elect the regional presidencies, and as such not all seats contested will see a candidate elected in the first round.