Prime Minister Jean Castex. – Eric TSCHAEN / POOL / SIPA
- The Scientific Council must submit to Matignon on Sunday a report on the holding of regional and departmental elections on June 13 and 20.
- While the coronavirus epidemic is on the rise again, the question of maintaining this poll, already postponed once, arises.
- The majority and the opposition are trying to pressure the government to maintain the vote scheduled in three months.
At the polls in June? The hour of choice is approaching for the executive concerning the puzzle of the regional and departmental elections, scheduled for June 13 and 20. The Scientific Council will submit to the Prime Minister on Sunday a report on the sanitary conditions allowing or not the holding of this election, confirmed Matignon to 20 minutes. As the epidemic situation continues to deteriorate, the opposition and even the majority are putting pressure on the government to maintain the vote in three months.
Do not let the Scientific Council “dictate” the electoral calendar
The opinion of the Scientific Council is provided for in the framework of the law, passed in February, on the postponement from March to June of these two elections because of the circulation of the coronavirus. The body is responsible for analyzing “the state of the Covid-19 epidemic, the health risks to be taken into account and the adaptations necessary for the holding of the polls and the electoral campaigns preceding them”. If we ignore the content of this report, Jean Castex said last week that he would rely “strictly on the advice of the scientific council” as to the possibility of organizing the vote.
Supporters of a vote in June have therefore increased the pressure in recent days, attacking the legitimacy of the Scientific Council. Three associations of elected officials published a press release on Monday, the day after a forum of ten presidents of the right and left regions
appeared in Le Figaro. “If the Scientific Council dictates the calendar of the elections, then we have changed the political regime without admitting it”, get carried away François Baroin (Association of Mayors of France), Dominique Bussereau (Assembly of the Departments of France), and Renaud Muselier (Regions of France), in their press release.
Political consensus
From left to right, maintaining the vote in June now seems to be a consensus, even if uncertainty remains about the epidemic situation in June. “The ballot will be able to take place in June under good conditions thanks to the sanitary measures”, assures Anne Genetet, member of the French nationals abroad and spokesperson for the group La République en Marche in the Assembly. Several elected officials evoke the elections held in times of Covid-19 in the Netherlands, Portugal or the United States. There remains the thorny question of the electoral campaign. “It will be very local, traditionally without a large meeting, and the current restrictions do not prevent people from towing on the markets, going door-to-door … Not to mention the digital tools that make it possible to reach voters”, assures Anne Genetet.
In opposition, The Republicans also plead for a retention in June. “We are not supposed to switch to a regime where it is the scientists, the doctors who would lead the democracy”, judge Constance Le Grip, deputy LR of Hauts-de-Seine. “It is a political decision, which belongs to the executive, and must not stick without any distance to an opinion of the Scientific Council”.
A new postponement could not be done without Parliament
The leader of senators LREM François Patriat nevertheless fears a strong abstention because of the health context, but he believes that a postponement would be badly perceived by the population. “We go to school, we jog, why can’t we vote? “
Especially since the executive ensures that it can meet its vaccination goals. “In June, the epidemiological pressure will not be the same as today,” says the Elysee, which expects 30 million French people to be vaccinated in June. “Nothing is decided at this stage, and a political consensus will have to emerge,” adds the presidency. At the end of the consultations in Matignon, if the executive opted for a new postponement, this could not be done without the agreement of the Parliament.