Presidential election in France: the sponsorship battle

Audio 02:38

The main courtyard of the Elysée Palace, the entrance to which overlooks the rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré, in Paris.

AFP PHOTO PATRICK KOVARIK

By: Julien Chavanne

3 min

It takes 500 to run for president.

The hunt for signatures of local elected officials is on for candidates for the Elysee Palace.

And for some, the operation is very complicated.

There are more and more candidates and fewer and fewer signatures to share.

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It is the race within the race.

Every five years, it's the same story.

The presidential candidates must collect the sponsorship of 500 elected officials: mayors, deputies, senators, territorial advisers ... Which sometimes gives cold sweats to the contenders for the Elysee.

Marine Le Pen, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, for example, are launched in a long-distance race to try to secure their candidacy.

Traffic jams of candidates on the far right

On the far right, between Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, Florian Philippot, François Asselineau, Eric Zemmour and Marine Le Pen, the competition in the nationalist camp is tough; they hunt on the same lands. Each signature of the mayor becomes crucial, a question of survival. " 

 " says Marine Le Pen in private. " 

 " recognizes the candidate of the National Rally.

On the left and on the right, the same observation: the number of elected officials ready to give their sponsorship decreases, the entry ticket for the presidential election is becoming more and more expensive.

Another obstacle: sponsorships are made public, which means that elected officials must be accountable after having supported a particular candidate.

More and more of them prefer not to support anyone, and thus avoid trouble.

Marine Le Pen even goes so far as to speak of a “ 

 ” if she, Zemmour or Mélenchon could not finally come forward.

Ant work

To garner the support of local elected officials, most candidates send ambassadors across the country for highly targeted door-to-door visits.

At the RN, MEP Laurent Jacobelli is responsible for appointing representatives in all the federations.

At Eric Zemmour - who has never been in politics and therefore starts from zero - we claim to have 600 activists totally focused on the hunt for elected officials.

The quasi-candidate also takes advantage of his signing tour all over France to meet local elected officials and try to seduce them.

Counting six months before the poll

Emmanuel Macron and the future candidate LR are safe.

The outgoing president will have his sponsorships without difficulty.

The right, it still has a good network of local elected officials.

The other candidates remain in the dark.

At Jean-Luc Mélenchon, we recognize that the collection of signatures "is 

 "

The rebellious France, which cannot count this time on the support of the Communists, would have a little more than 250 signatures - including fifteen that Jean-Luc Mélenchon brought back in his suitcase on his return from a trip to Guyana.

Marine Le Pen approaches the 300 initials ... But for the one who is running for the third time in the presidential election, it would simply be necessary to guarantee the anonymity of local elected officials and to lift a “ 

 ” as Marine Le Pen denounces.

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• Presidential France 2022

• Marine Le Pen

• Emmanuel Macron

• Jean-Luc Mélenchon