  In this paper we study a continuum version of the Potts model. Particles are
points in R^d, with a spin which may take S possible values, S being at least
3. Particles with different spins repel each other via a Kac pair potential. In
mean field, for any inverse temperature there is a value of the chemical
potential at which S+1 distinct phases coexist. For each mean field pure phase,
we introduce a restricted ensemble which is defined so that the empirical
particles densities are close to the mean field values. Then, in the spirit of
the Dobrushin Shlosman theory, we get uniqueness and exponential decay of
correlations when the range of the interaction is large enough. In a second
paper, we will use such a result to implement the Pirogov-Sinai scheme proving
coexistence of S+1 extremal DLR measures.
