French election maps

[Geoffrey Howe]

Bump to post a map I recently created of Charente Maritime in the first round of the 1995 presidential.

Pink - Jospin
Blue - Chirac
Turquoise - Balladur
Grey - Le Pen
Red - Hue
Purple - de Villiers



You can see the Socialist strength in La Rochelle (it would be great to get some more detailed results for the city itself - I have them for 2017 and it's interesting) and its suburbs/exurbs. You also have Socialist strength in much of the countryside near the border with the Charente; the towns up this stretch - Jonzac, Pons, Saintes, St Jean d'Angély, Matha are good for the left too.

The right's strength is on the islands where it is still strong (all communes went for Fillon), and not particularly surprising; though Île de Ré was probably considerably less touristy/Parisian than it is now because the bridge had only just been built. The right was very strong, as it traditionally is, along the Gironde; from La Tremblade down to the border with the 33. In a word, resort/seaside towns, and Royan has always been a rightwing city (61% Sarkozy). It's interesting to note that in the more urban parts of this stretch (Royan, Vaux, Meschers) the traditional right has held up well, voting as they did for Fillon; in the more rural parts to the south much of this vote has gone to Le Pen.

Finally, there is the rural stretch between Rochefort and Royan (also the A837 corridor between Rochefort and Saintes) which is traditionally good for the right and I really don't know why. Saint-Porchaire, Saint-Savinien, Beurlay - these places all voted over 55%, sometimes over 60% Chirac in the second round; over 70% in the case of Pont l'Abbé.


In general the right was split more than the left, so this map overstates the strength of the latter; you have quite a few Jospin first round communes giving Chirac over his national score in the second round. Not visible here is that de Villiers did well in the north by the Vendée border (no surprise) and along the Gironde south of Royan.