Nantes/Naoned on 9.11.06 : Communiqué from Bretagne Réunie

Brittany's reunification : revealing report and survey published by the General Council of Loire-Atlantique.

The General Council published, in its November newsletter, a report concerning the relations between Brittany and Loire-Atlantique. The title of this report, "A passion for Brittany", is meaningfull.

One of the basic and necessary conditions for democracy being to inform the voters, this report is therefore a democratic step forward. Consequently, we would like to congratulate the General Council and its President, Patrick Mareschal.

It is indeed the first time that such a step is taken. Although on June 22nd 2001 the General Council voted almost unanimously in favour of Brittany's reunification, nothing had been done to communicate the decision to citizens, not even in the General Council's newsletter.

However, citizens were never informed of the adopted document.

The report mentions the main points dealt with in the adopted document. It also mentions the resolution, which goes along the same lines, that was adopted on October 8th 2004 by Brittany's Regional Council.

The conclusion to the report is the following: “The General Council of Loire-Atlantique and Brittany Region voted in favour of reunification, which creates the political consensus demanded under French law to modify regional boundaries.

It is exactly what we, Bretagne Réunie (United Brittany) have been advocating since 2004.

Moreover, the report publishes the results from a IFOP survey that was carried out with 1176 people in June 2006 in Loire Atlantique. 67 % of the people interviewed replied positively to the question “Are you in favour of reunification between the Loire Atlantique department and the Brittany region ?”.

This survey therefore backs up the previous ones, which already revealed a strong majority in favour of reunification. Moreover, the large number of people interviewed this time gives even more weight to the survey.

This report and this survey therefore back up the steps taken by Bretagne Réunie to the government. However, it is important to point out that we are still waiting for the Home Secretary to react on our proposal that was submitted in our letter on June 17th 2006.

This proposal requests to organise in 2008 both local elections and a referendum about Brittany's reunification in Loire-Atlantique. It even suggests to organise these combined elections and referendum in all five Breton departments if necessary.

Jean Yves Bourriau, president of Bretagne Réunie.