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The President of France has always shown a strong determination to modernize the country and launched the territorial refom processs warning that he would go “all the way.” This implied that he wouldnot pay attention to local elected officials’ resistance or opposition. The Balladur Committee has been appointed to prepare the reform. For several months, the president’s allies have been hammeringthat France’s territorial organization is too complex and most importantly that it generates extra costs. What really is the situation? The territorial reform is more than a most needed modernization of France: it is a re-centralization of the country and ameans for the governement to strenghthen its control of the local governments, mostly run by the Socialist Party since the 2004 elections.