Municipal: the last week of the campaign disrupted by the coronavirus

Text by: RFI Follow

If the meeting of Rachida Dati and Nicolas Sarkozy was well held this Monday evening March 9 in Paris, D-6 of the first round of municipal elections, other electoral meetings were canceled due to the risks linked to the coronavirus. Especially in the big cities, in Paris or Marseille.

Publicity

The executive repeated it this weekend: no question of canceling the poll. But it's a funny campaign that looms until Sunday. According to an IFOP survey published in 20 minutes, 28% of French people plan to skip Sunday for fear of the coronavirus.

As a precautionary principle, just in Paris in a few hours two big meetings were canceled on Monday: that of environmentalists and that of outgoing mayor Anne Hidalgo . Ditto in several other major cities, such as Lyon, Strasbourg or Marseille. The second city of France where the walker candidate Yvon Berland would have made the same choice if he had not rather bet on proximity meetings at the end of the campaign. " If, of course, we had to plan a meeting this week," he admits at the microphone of Anne Soetemondt , " we would have canceled it, like the others did. "

Refusal to shake hands

Should we fear an abstention linked to the coronavirus? Consider postponing the elections? In the smallest cities where no case has been detected, the applicants refuse any alarmism. Nothing to report at this stage for Aymeric Merlaud, candidate for the national rally (RN) at the town hall of Maubeuge.

" I campaign normally," says Aymeric Merlaud. There, you see, I'm in a bar chatting with customers. Everyone shook hands or kissed each other. Now, it's true that for the first time today, a resident, during a towing operation, refused to shake my hand because of the coronavirus. "

As for Prime Minister Edouard Philippe, he maintains, for the moment, his last meeting in Le Havre this Thursday evening.

Nicolas Sarkozy came to support Rachida Dati, candidate Les Républicains for mayor of Paris. Obvious for the former president who responds to those who were surprised because of his good relations with Emmanuel Macron.

Nicolas Sarkozy in support of Rachida Dati

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• Coronavirus
• France
• 2020 municipal elections

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