Strongly criticized for having maintained the first round of municipal elections on March 15, Emmanuel Macron and Édouard Philippe must now decide the date of the second round. Scheduled initially on March 22 but postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, it concerns around 5,000 municipalities.

The health emergency law of March 23 provides that the Scientific Council gives its opinion and that the Prime Minister then submits, "no later than May 23", a report to Parliament to determine if the second round can take place in June. But Édouard Philippe wanted to speed up, according to Le Parisien, by asking the Scientific Council for advice on Wednesday.

>> Read: The French are deconfining, the campaign for the municipal ones too

The sign of a desire of the executive to end this election as soon as possible? While the green light was given Tuesday for the installation in the coming days of municipal councils elected in the first round, the idea of ​​a second round organized in September, even October, seemed to hold the rope in recent weeks. But, still according to Le Parisien, the President of the Republic finally opted for the month of June.

Redo the entire ballot in the fall if the second round does not take place before the summer

"We feel that today, in the situation where we are at the beginning of the deconfinement, a certain number of people seem rather to think that if we could make the elections before the summer it would be a good thing" , underlined, Wednesday, May 13, the Minister of Cohesion of the territories Jacqueline Gourault, before the Delegation to communities of the Senate.

Especially since "the Council of State took a very clear position by saying that if the elections were to take place after the summer, it would be necessary, for the communes which did not finish their election, to repeat two turns".

>> To read: Municipal: the mayors elected in the 1st round will take office on May 28 at the latest

"If we are able to open schools, colleges, high schools, shops, I do not see in the name of what the second round could not be held in June", if "the sanitary conditions allow it", a pleaded on May 11 the boss of LR deputies, Christian Jacob, on France Inter.

New municipal teams needed to revive the economy

Municipal elected officials, like the outgoing PS mayor of Le Mans, Stéphane Le Foll, in an interview with Le Figaro, also consider that if we can reopen schools and shops, "we must be able to organize the second round in June".

Municipal teams must get to work as soon as possible to prepare for the economic rebound, supports the Association of Mayors of France (AMF), chaired by François Baroin and which brings together almost all of the 35,000 mayors of France.

About 70% of public procurement comes from communities, especially municipalities and intermunicipal companies in the construction sector. And the second round concerns in particular the big cities where the new teams must be able to launch the sites. Outgoing mayors, sometimes beaten or who did not stand for re-election but whose mandate has been extended, do not necessarily have the legitimacy to initiate new projects.

>> Read: Municipal elections: how are mayors elected?

In any case, the government intends to consult the opposition this time. The latter had not failed to strongly criticize the government after the holding of the first round on March 15, barely two days before the start of confinement.

"It is a decision that will be shared by the government with the political forces and with Parliament whether we can do these elections before the summer or whether it is more reasonable to do so after the summer," said Jacqueline Gourault in the Senate.

According to Le Monde, Édouard Philippe thus plans to have Parliament vote in an advisory capacity, as he had done for his plan for leaving containment.

With AFP

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