Election Time Again

It's election time again in Reunion and once again Aurelie is running for the Green Party (Europe Ecology - The Greens).

This time its the departmental elections, one of the many levels of government that France has.  There are municipal/local elections, departmental elections, regional elections, national elections and European elections. To add to the confusion while most regions include a number of departments Reunion is both a department AND a region so needs elected bodies for both!    

The campaign won't be as intense as the municipal/local elections as there is less at stake.  Each level of government has different areas of responsibility.  As far as I understand (and my understanding of this is shaky at best!)  the department is responsible for: departmental roads (not national roads or streets), collages (school between the ages of about 11 to 15, why just these and not for older and younger ages I've no idea), waste management (at the departmental level), solidarity payments (for example supplementary payments for care in old folks homes, payments for care of kids 0-6, etc.). There are probably more areas of responsibility but the more I enquire the more puzzled I get trying to sort out the different areas of responsibility between the differing governing bodies, still Aurelie seems to know what is going on!

Still its another election and another chance to raise the Green profile locally.

Below are a couple of articles from Reunionese newspapers.