A majority of French people support changes to their country’s map, reports RFI.
A new poll on Sunday found that 55 per cent of French people outside of the capital are in favour of abolishing the general councils that govern France’s departments, paving the way to allow some regions to meld together.
A majority of people (61 per cent) did not know the name of their department’s president, a figure that went up to 76 per cent among people under the age of 35, according to the poll published in the France's Sunday paper the Journal du Dimanche.
Dating back to Napolean’s rule, departments were created as a part of his move to centralise the government in the early 1800s and eliminate very small towns with less than 300 residents.
Now, the French government is pushing forward with a decades old plan to wipe out all of the 101 general councils by 2021 and in the coming years reduce the number of regions from 22 to 12 by January 2017.
Read more of this report from RFI.