Paris (AFP)
EELV MEP Yannick Jadot asked to "maintain the first and postpone the second round" of the municipal elections to give priority to the fight against the coronavirus, Monday after a strong push by environmentalists overshadowed by a record abstention.
The strongman of the Greens had called on Sunday evening to postpone the second round, without mentioning the first round.
"One in two French people moved under difficult conditions. Since it has taken place, we must maintain the first round and change the electoral law to postpone the second," said Yannick Jadot on RTL.
"From the moment when the first round was held well, when dozens of volunteers held the polling stations, it cannot be deleted," he insisted. A first round which, according to him, showed that "environmentalists were no longer a force of testimony but of solutions".
If he hoped that there is "no partisan calculation around a pandemic which must bring the French together", Mr. Jadot criticized certain decisions of the executive: "From the moment when the development of the pandemic went on the same trend as in Italy, it was necessary to anticipate the measures taken by the Italians sometimes late ".
"It is true that there is a form of indiscipline of the French, it is necessary to scrupulously respect the recommendations", he said, questioned on sometimes crowded public places until Saturday evening. "But when you leave the bars and restaurants open, you cannot make the French feel guilty for going there," added the MEP.
© 2020 AFP