In France, a bidepartementalisation is an administrative operation exceptional consisting in creating two departments starting from a territory constituting some one hitherto.

The case of the Corsica

One of the most known examples of recent bidepartementalisation is that of the Corsica intervened in 1976. It is about the second operation of this kind carried out in the island by the French State, the first having taken place in 1793, that is to say three years after the creation of a single department by the Décret of the division of France in departments. This last was restored in 1811 for better disappearing thirty years ago. The Haute-Corse then found borders equivalent to old the Golo and the Corse-du-Sud those of old the Liamone.

The case of the Rhone-and-Loire

Into 1793, the department of the Rhone-and-Loire, created into 1790, was divided into 2 departments, the the Rhone and the the Loire.

The case of the Meeting

In France, another bidepartementalisation recently failed. It is about that which considered the government of Lionel Jospin for the Réunion, Région of overseas monodépartementale then populated of 700.000 inhabitants and suffering of a socio-economic imbalance in favor of north and the west.

Renamed " bidep" locally, the project was abandoned in 2000 because it received only one relative support within the population réunionnaise, this one not hesitating to express in the chief town by stressing " coup' Pa nou " , that is to say " do not separate us " in creole. It was in particular announced that with such a name the Réunion could not be divided into two without losing its heart.

If the promise to become a Préfecture with whole share made the proposal interesting to Saint-Pierre, in the south, it appeared much more contestable with Saint-Paul and in the west in general, managed this microphone-area geographically close to Saint-Denis being estimated injured by their inclusion announced in the southern department.

Moreover, the local political community was very divided as for this initiative, even the line however likely to criticize the whole of the government decisions. Thus, the mayor various right-hand side of common the Southerner of the Tampon André Thien Ah Koon supported the project. In the east, Jean-Paul Virapoullé as for him took the head of those which intended to resist to him. Several years afterwards, it still mentions the setting in failure of the project as one of its more important political feats of arms. It in particular made pose in the vicinity immediate of the town hall of Saint-Andrew a commemorative plaque of the demonstrations opposed to the bidepartementalisation where they are presented as a large act of resistance of the people réunionnais with a form of oppression.

The project envisaged the creation of two departments cut out according to a line between the North-West and south-east.

• the department of Meeting-of-North or Meeting of the Wind was to include/understand eleven communes of the north-eastern half of the island gathering 338.403 inhabitants then, that is to say 48% of the regional population: Arm-Panon, the Plain-of-Cabbage trees, the Port, the Possession, Saint-Andrew, Saint-Beno4it cheese, Saint-Denis, Sainte-Marie, Holy-Rose, Holy-Suzanne and Salazie. The chief town of this territory installed on the Coast-with-wind would have remained Saint-Denis, which would have also remained chief town of the Région Meeting.
• the department of the Meeting-of-South or Meeting under-the-Wind was as for him to include/understand the thirteen other communes of the island, those of the south-western half and which gathered 367.897 inhabitants then: the Oars, Cilaos, the Interval, Pond-Salted the, Small-Island, Saint-Joseph, Saint-Leu, Saint-Louis, Saint-Paul, Saint-Philippe Saint-Pierre, the Plug and Three-Basins. The chief town of this department located on the Coast-under-the-wind would have been Saint-Pierre, current sub-prefecture.

A preliminary draft subjected to the local dialog envisaged to integrate the Possession and the Port into the department of the South. If such had been the case, this one would have counted 428.213 inhabitants, that is to say 61% of the population of the island. That of North would have had only 278.087 inhabitants of it. Also, the preliminary draft was abandoned following the protests of the elected officials of these communes and the local population.

See too

• legislative File on the bidepartementalisation of the Meeting the site of the French Senate.

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