Па-де-Кале: История и современность департамента Франции.

Department of France

The Pas de Calais (pɑ d(ə) kalɛ, "strait of Calais"; ; also Nauw van Kales) is a department in northern France named after the French designation of the Strait of Dover, which it borders. It has the most communes of all the departments of France, with 890, and is the 8th most populous. It had a population of 1,465,278 in 2019. The Calais Passage connects to the Port of Calais on the English Channel. The Pas de Calais borders the departments of Nord and Somme and is connected to the English county of Kent via the Channel Tunnel.

Inhabited since prehistoric times, the Pas de Calais region was populated in turn by the Celtic Belgae, the Romans, the Germanic Franks and the Alemanni. During the fourth and fifth centuries, the Roman practice of co opting Germanic tribes to provide military and defence services along the route from Boulogne sur Mer to Cologne created a Germanic Romance linguistic border in the region that persisted until the eighth century. Saxon colonization into the region from the fifth to the eighth centuries likely extended the linguistic border somewhat south and west so that by the ninth century most inhabitants north of the line between Béthune and Berck spoke a dialect of Middle Dutch, while the inhabitants to the south spoke Picard, a variety of Romance dialects. This linguistic border is still evident today in the toponyms and patronyms of the region. Beginning in the ninth century, the linguistic border began a steady move to north and the east, and by the end of the 15th century Romance dialects had completely displaced those of Dutch. Pas de Calais is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on 4 March 1790. It was created from parts of the former provinces of Calaisis, formerly English, Boulonnais, Ponthieu and Artois, this last formerly part of the Spanish Netherlands. Some of the costliest battles of World War I were fought in the region. The Canadian National Vimy Memorial, eight kilometres from Arras, commemorates the Battle of Vimy Ridge assault during the Battle of Arras (1917) and is Canada's most important memorial in Europe to its fallen soldiers. Pas de Calais was also the target of Operation Fortitude during World War II, which was an Allied plan to deceive the Germans that the invasion of Europe at D Day was to occur here, rather than in Normandy.

Its principal towns are, on the coast, Calais and Boulogne sur Mer, and in Artois, Arras, Lens, Liévin, and Béthune. The most populous commune is Calais; the prefecture Arras is the second most populous. As of 2019, there are 10 communes with more than 15,000 inhabitants: However, since World War II, the economy has become more diversified.

The president of the Departmental Council is Jean Claude Leroy, elected in 2017.

In the second round of the French presidential elections of 2017 Pas de Calais was one of only two departments in which the candidate of the Front National, Marine Le Pen, received a majority of the votes cast: 52.06%.

ElectionWinning CandidateParty%2nd Place CandidateParty% 2022 Marine Le Pen FN 57.49 Emmanuel Macron LREM 42.51 2017 Marine Le Pen FN 52.06 Emmanuel Macron LREM 47.94 2012 François Hollande PS 56.18 Nicolas Sarkozy UMP 43.82 2007 Ségolène Royal PS 52.04 Nicolas Sarkozy UMP 47.96 2002 Lionel Jospin PS 57.28 Jacques Chirac RPR 42.72

There are currently two public universities in the department. Although it is one of the most populous departments of France, Pas de Calais did not contain a university until 1991 when the French government created two universities: ULCO (Université du Littoral Côte d'Opale) on the western part of the department, and Université d'Artois on the eastern part.