Mulhouse, Alsace. Wikimedia. Public domain.
Alsace
The reform of the French regions by Manuel Valls has just wiped the region of Alsace off the map. A little as though they were to recreate the former “CAPAC” region (Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur-Corsica), summarily dissolving the Corsican Assembly. The Corsican revolt of the 1970s blew Paris’ technocratic structure to pieces. With Unser Land, the Alsatian party which is resolutely climbing the polls, Alsace could do likewise and oblige the state to restore its territorial identity.
By obliging them to stand for the regional elections in the new ACAL region (Alsace-Champagne-Ardennes-Lorraine), the authorities hoped that the voices of Alsace, overwhelmed in this formless mass, would go unheard. Unser Land is in in the process of proving the opposite, and one of the challenges of the elections in December may be the score of the Alsatian organisation, a member of R&PS and the EFA.
