The Cher department in central France used to be a stronghold of the left.
During World War II, it was one of the heartlands of the French resistance fighters known as maquisards. France was at the time partly occupied by Nazi Germany, while the rest of the country was under the rule of French general Philippe Petain, whose Vichy government was collaborating with the Nazis.
Since the 1950s, several provincial towns of the Cher, such as Vierzon, even voted in the Communist Party.
