The race against time is on. Presidential candidates have until March 4 to have their candidacy validated by the Constitutional Council. But a few days before the fateful date, some have still not collected the 500 signatures of elected officials required. Marine Le Pen, Éric Zemmour and Jean-Luc Mélenchon, having respectively validated this Tuesday evening 393, 350 and 442 sponsorships, have launched appeals to mayors in recent hours to avoid what, according to them, is akin to “a democratic scandal major “.
Marine Le Pen suspends her campaign, Eric Zemmour makes phone calls
“I appeal to the mayors: if you do not help me, millions of voters will be deprived of an election”, warned, worried, Marine Le Pen in a video posted Monday on her Twitter account. This Tuesday, those around her said that the National Rally candidate was suspending her campaign and canceling her trips to devote herself to this task.
“We don’t stop, it’s exhausting, we waste our time trying to convince the mayors rather than campaigning”, regrets the deputy RN Sébastien Chenu. “With the end of anonymity, this system has become ridiculous, we have mayors who vote for us, in municipalities where we make 60%, but they do not want to sponsor us in the face of pressure or to avoid having trouble in their town, ”adds the spokesperson for the candidate, while the Constitutional Council publishes the names of the various sponsors every week.
After canceling a trip to Reunion, Eric Zemmour has also arranged his agenda, planning two days this week devoted to this hunt for 500 sesames. “He is forced to spend time calling the mayors in person to solicit sponsorships. This system is going crazy. It would be undemocratic for a candidate not to be able to compete when he is qualified in the second round in certain polls”, plague Dénis Cieslik, head of sponsorships and spokesperson for Reconquête.
“It is not because he sponsors us that he has become a Mélenchonist”
To prevent these “big” candidates from being able to present themselves, several initiatives have been launched. The LR mayor of Cannes, David Lisnard, said on Sunday that he was sponsoring Jean-Luc Mélenchon “out of civic concern” and “so that demagogues do not play the victims”. This call from the boss of the Association of Mayors of France could unblock the situation. “It is not because he sponsors us that he has become a Mélenchonist. Many mayors hesitate because of this, fearing reprisals in their agglomeration or in their municipal council. So it’s a good signal for the mayors to play this democratic game, ”welcomes LFI deputy Eric Coquerel.
In the process, the mayors of three municipalities in the Var granted their sponsorships to Jean-Luc Mélenchon, Marine Le Pen and Eric Zemmour, after drawing lots, stressing to AFP on Tuesday the risk that “three candidates representing 42% of French be excluded from the presidential election. But these signatures could be invalidated by the Constitutional Council, which has already ruled out this modus operandi depending on chance in the past.
“A bank” of sponsorships launched, but not for everyone
Marine Le Pen, Éric Zemmour and Jean-Luc Mélenchon are not the only ones having difficulty obtaining sponsorship. François Asselineau (UPR), Philippe Poutou (NPA) or even Christiane Taubira, already present in previous presidential elections, are not at all certain of being on the starting line. In a column published Tuesday by the JDD, 50 elected officials announced that they would sponsor Christiane Taubira, to “give a voice to the 400,000 voters of the Popular Primary” that the former Minister of Justice had won at the end of January. The task promises to be difficult for these “small” candidates, who will not be able to benefit from the help of François Bayrou.
The boss of the Modem announced on February 10 the creation of a site offering mayors the opportunity to sponsor candidates to avoid “a democratic tsunami”. But Emmanuel Macron’s former minister has warned that this “sponsorship bank” will only support candidates above 10% in the polls.
Asked about this subject this Wednesday at the National Assembly, Jean Castex encouraged elected officials to “provide their sponsorship” to the candidates, recalling that only 10,000 of them had given their signature out of the approximately 42,000 authorized elected officials. The Prime Minister also indicated that he would receive all the associations of local elected officials on Thursday, as well as the presidents of the National Assembly and the Senate to discuss this issue.