A recent round of municipal elections has given the right wing in France a real boost, and they have public transportation in their crosshairs.

In [Toulouse and Strasbourg], the Socialist candidates wanted to build a tramway, while the centrist and center-right candidates wanted a more expensive metro that did not disrupt automobile traffic on the surface.

Right wing UMP candidate Jean-Luc Moudenc won the run-off election on Sunday, and claimed that incumbent Socialist mayor Pierre Cohen "wants to chase drivers out of the city." Are trams on the way out?

Trams elsewhere haven’t fared much better during the latest round of elections. “An object of desire through the beginning of the 2000s,” blogged Le Monde’s transportation reporter, “this small urban train, on which so many mayors have staked their reputations as builders, is now jinxed.”

Paris will be fine, of course, but trams in other cities might feel the hit. Across the world, two political camps are forming: the city and the rest. We're seeing it happen in Paris, and we are seeing it happen here in Seattle.