In 2012, the French presidential election confirmed the geographical political changes that have been observed for the last fifteen years in France : progress of the left-wing in Western France and in city-centres, strong presence of the National Front in the working class suburbs and in the suburban areas, and decrease of the right- wing, except in the service-based residential areas.
This article, based on an original database at the canton level, analyzes the recent developments of the electoral map (2007-2012) and for the 1981-2012 period. It compares these results to socio-economic variables extracted from the popu- lation census, and offers spatial analyses (mainly according to the distance from the city).