In June 2021, the outgoing socialist president Alain Rousset was re-elected as head of the regional council of New Aquitaine. He officially began his fifth term of 7 years. It was a landslide victory as he received 109 votes against 28 for the opposition. As Alain Rousset has an absolute majority, this was not a surprise.

List of Candidates for the Election of the President of the Regional Council in New Aquitaine

We can mention Alain Rousset, who the Socialist Party supported, the Communist Party, and the Radical Left Party. The candidate proposed by the opposition is Nicolas Florian, sponsored by Les Républicains. Edwige Diaz ran for office, supported by the Rassemblement National. There was also Geneviève Darrieussecq who was supported by La République en Marche and the MoDem, Nicolas Thierry supported by La France Insoumise, Eddie Puyjalon supported by Résistons and Guillaume Perchet supported by Lutte Ouvrière.

The Conduct of the Election

The election in New Aquitaine is conducted as follows. The president of the regional council and the regional councilors are elected according to a mixed majority system for a 6-year term. A majority bonus of 25% of the seats is attributed to the list that comes first. The lists must respect parity’s principle by alternating a male and a female candidate.

In the first round, the list with an absolute majority of the votes cast wins the majority bonus. If no list has obtained an absolute majority, a second round is established between all the lists having obtained at least 10% of the votes cast in the first round. Thereafter, the remaining seats are distributed proportionally according to the percentage of votes cast that have passed the 5% electoral threshold.

Alain Rousset’s Career
Political Career

Alain Rousset arrived in Bordeaux in the early 1980s. He was initially from the Lyon region and had just been appointed chief of staff to André Labarrère. Labarrère was a socialist from Pau who was president of the Aquitaine Regional Council. His political strategy is based on the decentralization launched by Gaston Defferre in 1981. Moreover, even 40 years after his arrival, Alain Rousset never misses an opportunity to plead the cause of local authorities against the centralizing State.

At his very first election, he obtained a mandate as general councilor in Pessac, a town where he would become mayor and then deputy. Then, in 1998, he won the region against the outgoing Rassemblement Pour la République, represented by Jacques Valade. Without a majority, he negotiated with his hunting friends.

In 2015, Alain Rousset, who can now be described as the boss of the Aquitaine region, was able to spread his wings a little more, extend his authority, to convince the Picto-Charentais and the Limousins. Today, he is the president of the largest region in France, covering 84,000 square kilometers, and 6 million inhabitants, with a budget of 3 billion euros. It should be noted that journalists describe him as a hard worker, obsessed with his job as president.

Thus, for this new mandate, Alain Rousset plans to pursue his ambitions, especially ecological. His strategy is focused on activities that will contribute to the development of New Aquitaine.