Even the far-left parties in France are not considered today as extremist even if their parties are quite oppaque, they have some sympathie from other right and left leaders and are considered legitimately as playing a fair democratic play, when both Arlette Laguiller (LO) and the young Olivier Besancenot (LCR) have some sympathies (may be people don’t vote much for them because their programs are not realist, but no one see them as threats to the democracy, unlike the FN and its secessionist branch of the MDR).

Remember that French voters polled massively in a “Republican Front” grouping nearly all parties from left to right during the last presidencials, by supporting Chirac massively against Le Pen. This republican front is an important consensus today that all leaders from right to left and even far-left will protect with good reasons.

Le Pen is still seen as a major problem for a vast majority of French, that know how to protest more securely by majority shifts between left and right. This new election shows that the left/right political spectrum is not over in France and that people can still see differences between them without needing a call for far-right extremists.

Their only “real” power lies in the public transportation department ; at least that’s the only place where you regularly hear about them

Although Raffarin’s hobby horse is to increase decentralization and the power of the regions, it’s not really popular within his own government, much less among the population. And, with such bad election results, Chirac might soon decide to give him the boot.

That’s why it seems the main reason for the rise in voter participation seems to have been caused - aside from a bad weather making a day in the countryside less attractive - by a general desire to show the disapproval of the government.

Also, thanks to the new voting systems for those election - changed from almost pure proportional one round voting in 1998 - the far right won’t have any power in any of the regions, unless they actually win one over, which seems unlikely. That was the reason of the electoral change.

The spending powers of the region are quite often apolitical, spending that has to be done rather than tough political choices. Also, pretty much nobody cares about what happen at the regional level. Makes it pretty hard to have a revolt against the national government.

Of course the likely impact on decentralisation is that Raffarin won’t be allowed to continue on decentralising ; it will simply stop it.