Paris (AFP)

The electoral evenings of the first round of the municipal elections will be held at least Sunday evening in the headquarters of the Parisian parties and candidates after the limitation to 100 people of rallies due to the coronavirus.

Prime Minister Edouard Philippe lowered the authorized gatherings to 100 people (against 1,000 previously) in order to "curb" the spread of the epidemic.

"There will be no militant rally in order to comply with government orders," the National Rally told AFP.

Among the Republicans, a simple meeting of the office is announced, also without activists but with some journalists, at the headquarters of the party where the president, Christian Jacob, will go after an intervention on a TV set.

No activists either at the LREM headquarters where we talk about "an evening of work": "We asked only those whose presence is essential to come and, for the press, a TV pool and a rotation journalist-editors is envisaged, "it was specified.

No election night is planned for the Communist Party, and rebellious France is only considering an intervention in the evening of its leader, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, from its headquarters.

The environmental leader Yannick Jadot will be Sunday in Strasbourg and does not plan to return to the Greens for another electoral evening which will take place "in small committee", with members of the national executive office and heads of list of districts.

The Socialist Party will also keep its permanence open in a restricted format.

For the Paris campaign, the teams of outgoing PS mayor Anne Hidalgo and Agnès Buzyn (LREM) have not yet decided whether or not to maintain an election night. Also on the side of Rachida Dati (LR), stalling was underway and the decision will be announced on Saturday morning.

No change, however, for the team of Cédric Villani, who had planned to leave it to each of its list leaders to organize in its arrondissement. But there will be no militant evening for the mathematician, who will make an appearance around 11:00 p.m. to comment on the results in front of the café Le Parvis located at the foot of his headquarters.

Reduced version also among Parisian environmentalists: "We are going to do something really minimal, with only the head of the list and a small nucleus of volunteers and employees," said the entourage of candidate EELV David Belliard.

© 2020 AFP