For four days in 2022, part of the Unitarian Church in New Road, Brighton became a little bit of France. Look hard and you will see the “writing on the door”. On a background of the French tricolore is the single word Élections.
Sunday 10 April was the day of the first round of the French les présidentielles [presidential election]. The several thousand French voters in the Brighton area and wider afield (postcodes BN, PO and SO) seemed to have preferred to stay in bed.
Last month (May 2017), this stencilled message (The National Front shall never pass in Brighton) adorned the pavement around the Mercure Hotel on Brighton seafront. The hotel had just been used as the polling station for the French presidential election. Next Sunday (4 June) will see the same hotel used for the parliamentary elections for French nationals in Brighton and Hove. Continue reading
On the 4th June (premier tour) and the 18th June (deuxième tour), French voters in the Brighton area will converge on the Mercure Hotel to vote, not for their president, but for their M.P. (député).
In France, a constituency (circonscription) is formed of an area with about 125,000 registered electors. French nationals who live overseas, do not have quite such a fair crack of the whip … but at least, since 2012, they can now vote for an M.P. of their own. Continue reading
Consul François Jean (left) and John Loveridge.
(c) Cercle Français de Brighton et Hove
Sunday 23 April 2017 will be an important days for French nationals in Brighton. Under the aegis of the French Honorary Consul, Captain François Jean, they will be going to vote in the first round (premier tour) of the French presidential elections. Their ballot boxes (urnes) will be at the Mercure Hotel in Brighton. Continue reading
French Brighton 