French elections - St Pol sur Ternoise - second round
Wednesday, 2 April 2014
The second round of voting on Sunday, 30 March confirmed Maurice Louf as Mayor of St Pol, winning 57% of the votes. He is the first mayor of St Pol to win a second, consecutive period in office in 25 years. M.Louf's team also won 23 seats on the council compared with just 6 seats for the team of Ludovic Bellinguer.
French elections - St Pol sur Ternoise
Tuesday, 25 March 2014
Hebden Bridge is twinned with St Pol sur Ternoise, a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in northern France.
Maurice Louf, the Mayor of St Pol sur Ternoise and a frequent visitor to Hebden Bridge, looks set to retain control of his town's municipal administration following local government elections held yesterday.
Maurice Louf leads a left-of-centre team of councillors, who received 48.4% of the votes cast in a battle with three other electorial lists of candidates. The result falls just short of outright victory, and means under French electoral law that a second round of elections will have to be held. Nevertheless the size of this first round result should assure Louf success.
The right wing vote has been split between two electoral lists, one representing dissidents from the previous administration briefly led by Yves Héniart. The two lists together polled around 45%.
The results in St Pol come at a time when nationally the Socialist administration of François Hollande is very unpopular. The extreme right FN achieved strong results in some towns in the same region as St Pol but has little support in St Pol itself.
Previously, on the HebWeb
Former mayor wins back control in St Pol - June 2011
St Pol sur Ternoise
Hebden Bridge’s French twin town
La Voix du Nord - 10 questions concerning the future of St. Pol