Partially confined due to the coronavirus crisis, part of the French still voted for the first round of municipal elections on Sunday. Will they come to the polling stations next Sunday? Nothing is less certain, while calls are multiplying from all sides to request a postponement of the poll, marked by a very strong abstention in the first round, with a rate at 54.5%.
Oppositions Request Postponement
As the toll of the coronavirus epidemic grows and the authorities' instructions harden, so do the calls for politicians to postpone the election. From Marine Le Pen to the National Gathering to Yannick Jadot at Europe Ecologie-Les Verts via François Bayrou's MoDem, the overwhelming majority of officials are demanding a postponement of the second round. Including at Les Républicains, a party of which several prominent figures had demanded the maintenance of the first round, Thursday.
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Government procrastinates
In government, we prefer to remain cautious by not pronouncing clearly for a postponement, while more drastic containment measures could be taken during the week. "I will meet at the beginning of the week the scientific council then I will consult the representatives of the political forces", simply asserted Sunday evening Prime Minister Edouard Philippe. But when could these "necessary steps" be taken? "Tuesday, Wednesday, probably Tuesday, I will have to ask them the question of the second round," continued the head of government.
Scientists alert everywhere
The decision to postpone the election is in any case widely acclaimed within the scientific world to limit the damage of this major crisis. For Rémi Salomon, representative of the AP-HP doctors, the health crisis is such that "it must take precedence over everything," he said on Sunday evening on Europe 1. The head of the pediatrics department of Necker hospital "can not imagine" that we maintain the second round of municipal which must take place next Sunday. Conceiving "very well" that the cancellation of an election is "very serious", the specialist calls on "political leaders to take stock of the situation".
Constitutionalists divide
However, after the first round, a postponement became complex, according to the constitutional experts. "The municipal election is inseparable, it forms a whole", explains the constitutionalist Didier Maus. He believes that if there is talk of a postponement of the second round, the first must be canceled: "We redo all or nothing". However, it is difficult to invalidate the results of the first round. For Jean-Philippe Derosier, constitutional lawyer and professor of law at the University of Lille, "according to democratic principles, we cannot question an election that has taken place". And according to him, the strong abstention does not change anything.
Sunday evening, Marine Le Pen, the president of the National Rally, asked Sunday to "take for granted" the elections of the candidates elected in the first round and to "postpone" the other polls. Is it possible ? Keep the victories of the first round and postpone the other polls "would be a case that we have never known", according to political scientist Jean-Yves Camus. A postponement of the second round would result in the cancellation of the election of the candidates elected in the first round, said Dominique Rousseau, professor of constitutional law at Paris-1.