Paris (AFP)

Assessors and presidents of polling stations tested positive, activists and candidates contaminated: the volunteers and elected officials who participated in the electoral campaign and in the first round of municipal elections were seriously affected by the spread of the coronavirus.

Protective measures were taken - hydroalcoholic gel, gloves, no queue ... - but it was not enough. Ten days after the first round, volunteers are positive for the virus and their anger does not weaken against the decision to maintain the poll.

In Billom in Puy-de-Dôme, a 62-year-old woman who ran a polling station was hospitalized and tested positive, according to the re-elected mayor, Jean-Michel Charlat. The elected official passed that day "in all the polling stations" and himself has a fever. The Clermont-Ferrand University Hospital, where the assessor was admitted, however told him that she may have been contaminated long before, he said.

In Mitry-Mory (Seine-et-Marne), one of the assessors is in the hospital in a worrying state, reached by the Covid-19, a candidate in AFP told AFP Marl.

Suspected contamination on polling day was also reported by elected officials and candidates in Seine-Saint-Denis, Versailles, Val d'Oise (Franconville) or the XVIIth arrondissement of Paris.

"In the office, there was not a meter between each assessor, we were against each other," says Ronan Arveuf, candidate and assessor of office N ° 7 in Saint-Ouen (Seine-Saint-Denis) where around fifteen people took turns all day long, and the city had around thirty polling stations.

The first round mobilized several hundred thousand people in the country to organize the poll. If the link is not clearly established between these contaminations and voting operations, the pandemic has also caused damage among those who campaigned for sometimes several months.

- "A massacre among the militants" -

In Seine-Saint Denis, it is "a massacre among the militants" who campaigned and "there is no reason why it should not be the case elsewhere", summarizes the deputy LFI Eric Coquerel. "Since there are no tests, it is complicated" to identify the cases precisely, but "many people are tested positive" and some have symptoms, he assured AFP. On the list he supported, "a dozen people" are, according to him, concerned.

According to Ronan Arveuf, at least fifteen people who campaigned in Saint-Ouen had symptoms or fell ill.

Most candidates only suspended their campaign a few days before the first round to comply with the precautionary measures.

In Marseille, several members of Martine Vassal's team, including the candidate LR herself, but also the candidate LREM Yvon Berland were tested positive, like the outgoing mayor of Nice, Christian Estrosi.

Critics blaze against the executive's decision to hold the first round on March 15. "It was really crazy," said Eric Coquerel, who had symptoms himself.

Same reaction from the mayor of Billom: "The ideal would have been to cancel this first round. But we were at the end of the campaign and we were impatient for it to end, including me".

On social media, reactions alternate between anger and worry.

"I too was a secretary of a polling station ... and I count the days to be sure of not being contaminated. I do not understand why the elections were maintained ... They put us in danger ", worries Niçoise Anne-Christel Cook on Twitter.

Another person protested: "And if we were talking about the town hall employees who worked BEFORE DURING AFTER these elections. And who hallucinated to note that the Presidents and assessors took no precautions! ...".

© 2020 AFP