Anciennes et nouvelles capitales des régions françaises dans les débats autour de la réforme régionale : les enjeux territoriaux dans la prise de décision

The territorial reform enacted in France in 2016 led to the merging of some existing regions and thus to a choice between former regional capitals to select the new ones and this event is also doubled by a whole administrative reorganisation. This reform results in the concentration of functions and services in fewer cities but however promote slight forms of polycentrism within the new regions, which appears innovative from the French tradition of territorial organization. Based on an analysis of the parliamentary debates on this territorial reform, this paper intends to measure the place of the capital cities in the reform and examines the representations, issues and arguments on which the choice of new capitals was built. Within a classic spatial planning debate, regional capitals appear as objects of negotiations related to local interests but lead, however, to the proposals of polycentric territorial organizations.