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Interior Minister Christophe Castaner CLEMENT MAHOUDEAU / AFP

Less than two months from the municipal elections, the government has decided to no longer assign a political “ nuance ” to the mayors of cities with fewer than 9,000 inhabitants. Until now, this was the case only for cities with less than 1000 inhabitants. For the opposition of right and left, it is an electoral scam on the part of the Republic on the March which would seek to hide its lack of local roots.

Different from " labeling ", which allows candidates to freely choose a label, the " nuancing " carried out by the prefects consists in assigning a political color to the lists and candidates, including those who have declared themselves "without label". The ministry draws up a list of nuances which are allotted taking into account in particular the “past trajectory” of the candidates. The aim is to establish at national level the balance of power between the main political trends.

The string is a bit big in the eyes of French MP Debout France, Nicolas Dupont-Aignan: " It is an infamy, it is a coarse operation, it is to break the thermometer so as not to see the fever. But the fever is there. "

For Damien Abad, the head of deputies Les Républicains, Emmanuel Macron's party simply wants to make up his future rout. “ 96% of the national territory would escape any political expression. It is the fact that the France of the territories, because it is not a macronist, ultimately would not appear on the evenings of the 1st and 2nd rounds of the municipal elections. "

All against the circular, all against its author, Christophe Castaner, the Minister of the Interior, the preferred target of the opposition. Examples with Nicolas Dupont-Aignan and the National Rally MP Sébastien Chenu. “ The Minister of the Interior has left his role as an arbiter. Have you ever seen a referee entering a game and kicking players' shins? Said the first; “ Mr. Castaner was already an absurd Minister of the Interior; now, he shows us that he is the candidate of the scheming, ”annoys the second.

The government claims to meet demand from small rural towns. The deputy walker Laurent Saint Martin denies any entanglement. “ The subject is absolutely not to hide the labels in oneself for fear of an electoral result but on the contrary to apply something simpler for the prefects. "

In an emergency procedure, the Les Républicains party applied to the Conseil d'Etat to ask it to suspend the Interior circular, which " is likely to affect the sincerity of the vote ". The National Rally also filed an appeal on Tuesday before the Council of State to request " the cancellation " of the circular, considering that it " lacks a legal basis " and breaks " the equality between the candidates ". The Council of State will examine next week the appeals filed by Les Républicains. The Socialist Party also intends to table one on their side.