The Regional Council of Grand Est (french: conseil régional du Grand Est), formerly the regional council of Alsace-Champagne-Ardenne-Lorraine (french: conseil régional d'Alsace-Champagne-Ardenne-Lorraine), is the

deliberative assembly A deliberative assembly is a meeting of members who use parliamentary procedure. Etymology In a speech to the electorate at Bristol in 1774, Edmund Burke described the British Parliament as a "deliberative assembly," and the expression became the ...

of the

region In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and the interaction of humanity and t ...

Grand Est Grand Est (; gsw-FR, Grossa Oschta; Moselle Franconian/ lb, Grouss Osten; Rhine Franconian: ''Groß Oschte''; german: Großer Osten ; en, "Great East") is an administrative region in Northeastern France. It superseded three former administrat ...

Jean Rottner Jean Rottner (born 28 January 1967) is a French politician of the political party The Republicans who was mayor of Mulhouse from 2010 to 2017, and has been President of the regional council of Grand Est since 2017. Born as a son of teachers, J ...

of The Republicans (LR) is the current president of the regional council. He was elected on 20 October 2017, following the retirement of

Philippe Richert Philippe Richert (born 22 May 1953) is a French politician of The Republicans party (known as the Union for a Popular Movement until 2015), president of the regional council of Grand Est from 2016 to 2017. He previously was the president of the ...

on 30 September 2017.

History

The regional council of Grand Est, previously Alsace-Champagne-Ardenne-Lorraine, was created by the act on the delimitation of regions, regional and departmental elections and amending the electoral calendar of 16 January 2015, which went into effect on 1 January 2016 and merged the regional councils of

Alsace Alsace (, ; ; Low Alemannic German/ gsw-FR, Elsàss ; german: Elsass ; la, Alsatia) is a cultural region and a territorial collectivity in eastern France, on the west bank of the upper Rhine next to Germany and Switzerland. In 2020, it had ...

Champagne-Ardenne Champagne-Ardenne () is a former administrative region of France, located in the northeast of the country, bordering Belgium. Mostly corresponding to the historic province of Champagne, the region is known for its sparkling white wine of th ...

, and

Lorraine Lorraine , also , , ; Lorrain: ''Louréne''; Lorraine Franconian: ''Lottringe''; german: Lothringen ; lb, Loutrengen; nl, Lotharingen is a cultural and historical region in Northeastern France, now located in the administrative region of Gr ...

, consisting of 47, 49, and 73 regional councillors, respectively, into a single body with 169 regional councillors, following regional elections on 6 and 13 December 2015. The number of representatives elected for these three former regions was recalculated as a result of the reform, with Alsace electing 59 seats, Champagne-Ardenne electing 38 seats, and Lorraine electing 72 seats.

Seat

The merger of the regions of

, and

necessitated the redistribution of administrative functions between the seats of the former regions.

, president of the newly unified region, proposed designating

Strasbourg Strasbourg (, , ; german: Straßburg ; gsw, label=Bas Rhin Alsatian, Strossburi , gsw, label=Haut Rhin Alsatian, Strossburig ) is the prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est region of eastern France and the official seat of the Eu ...

as the new capital and therefore seat of the regional council, with Strasbourg and

Metz Metz ( , , lat, Divodurum Mediomatricorum, then ) is a city in northeast France located at the confluence of the Moselle and the Seille rivers. Metz is the prefecture of the Moselle department and the seat of the parliament of the Grand E ...

sharing the standing committee and plenary assembly. On 12 January 2016, Richert announced that Strasbourg would become the capital of the region and seat of the regional council, standing committee, and thematic committees, while the plenary assembly would convene in Metz. He also stated that there would be a "house of the regional council" in the three former regional capitals, located at 1 place Adrien Zeller in Lyon, 1 place Gabriel Hocquard in Metz, and 5 rue de Jéricho in

Châlons-en-Champagne Châlons-en-Champagne () is a city in the Grand Est region of France. It is the capital of the department of Marne, despite being only a quarter the size of the city of Reims. Formerly called Châlons-sur-Marne, the city was officially renam ...

. The finance committee of the regional council was also relocated to Châlons-en-Champagne. These proposals were approved at a session of the plenary assembly on 29 April during which regional councillors also agreed to rename the region – then known as Alsace-Champagne-Ardenne-Lorraine – to Grand Est, following an online consultation in which 75% of participants voted in favor.

Election results

2015 regional election

The current regional council was elected in regional elections on 6 and 13 December 2015, with the list of

consisting of The Republicans (LR), the

Union of Democrats and Independents The Union of Democrats and Independents (french: Union des démocrates et indépendants, UDI) is a centre to centre-right political party in France and former electoral alliance founded on 18 September 2012 on the basis of the parliamentary grou ...

(UDI), and the Democratic Movement (MoDem) securing an absolute majority of 104 seats. After the first round,

Jean-Pierre Masseret Jean-Pierre Masseret (born 23 August 1944 in Cusset, Allier) was a member of the Senate of France, representing the Moselle department for the periods 1983 to 1997, 2001 to 2011, and 2014 to 2017. He was a member of the Socialist Party, until h ...

of the

Socialist Party Socialist Party is the name of many different political parties around the world. All of these parties claim to uphold some form of socialism, though they may have very different interpretations of what "socialism" means. Statistically, most of t ...

(PS) refused to withdraw his list before the second round, despite calls by the leadership of the party, as well as a number of members of Masseret's list, to vote for Richert's list in order to stop the National Front from winning the region. As a result, the PS renounced its support for Masseret and stated that he would "not have the Socialist label" in the second round.

Composition

Political groups

The regional council currently consists of four political groups.

Executive

Presidents

On 4 January 2016,

of The Republicans (LR) was elected president of the Alsace-Champagne-Ardenne-Lorraine region with 102 votes, against 46 votes for

Florian Philippot Florian Philippot (born 24 October 1981) is a French politician. He served as Vice President of the National Front (France), National Front from 2012 to 2017 before quitting the party to found The Patriots (France), The Patriots in September 201 ...

of the National Front (FN), 20 blank votes, and 1 abstention, with the left not contesting the ballot. On 30 September 2017,

of The Republicans (LR), announced his retirement from politics and resigned his post as president of the regional council. He was replaced in the interim by Jean-Luc Bohl of the

(UDI) until

was elected as his successor on 20 October. He received 96 votes, failing to secure the support of 8 members of his own group, against 35 votes for Virginie Joron of the FN and 1 vote for Christophe Choserot, a member of La République En Marche! elected under the banner of the

(PS) sitting with the left in the regional council. A total of 37 blank and null ballots were cast. The Socialist group did not nominate a candidate and instead submitted blank votes, as did the group of The Patriots in the regional council due to a lack of "credible projects", implicitly rejecting the candidacy of Joron.

Vice presidents

In addition to the president, the executive of the regional council also includes 15 vice presidents delegated to certain policy areas.

Committees

The regional council includes 14 thematic committees which submit deliberations related to various policy areas.

References

External links

Official website of the Grand Est region
{{Regional Councils (France), current, state=Grand Est Politics of Grand Est

Grand_Est Grand Est (; gsw-FR, Grossa Oschta; Moselle Franconian/ lb, Grouss Osten; Rhine Franconian: ''Groß Oschte''; german: Großer Osten ; en, "Great East") is an administrative region in Northeastern France. It superseded three former administrat ...