Edouard Philippe received the leaders of the main political parties in Matignon on May 20, 2020 to take stock of the municipal elections. - THOMAS COEX / POOL / AFP

The French will vote… one day. The second round of the municipal elections, postponed because of Covid-19, will take place either in June or in January 2021 at the latest, Edouard Philippe said Wednesday to the leaders of the political parties, according to several participants interviewed by AFP. "The Prime Minister has ruled out September very clearly, and the fall too, saying it is June or January," reported LR president Christian Jacob after a meeting of party leaders around Matignon. 'Edouard Philippe. "Edouard Philipppe told us either June or January 2021. He does not envisage a ballot at the start of the school year," added MP LFI Alexis Corbière.

Edouard Philippe stressed that no decision was made at this stage, according to several participants. Questioned, the Prime Minister's entourage told AFP to work on two hypotheses, including that of a postponement of the elections but not beyond January 2021.

Consultation this evening in Matignon of the leaders of the political parties on #municipales, following the publication of the report of the Scientific Council. pic.twitter.com/JNZFkqqAOn

- Edouard Philippe (@EPhilippePM) May 20, 2020

A draft law is in preparation and examined by the Council of State in the event of postponement. But that does not prejudge the decision, said this source. According to her, Edouard Philippe considers that a poll in September would be complicated because of the start of the school year. And that the following months are also very constrained from a parliamentary point of view because there are finance laws and this does not allow to suspend the activity of Parliament to campaign. The report the government is due to deliver Friday or Saturday to Parliament will contain an orientation to the government's position, the source said.

Several parties opposed to June

At the meeting, Alexis Corbière expressed his opposition to the holding of a second round in June. The president of the Scientific Council Jean-François Delfraissy, “present at the start of the meeting, told us that it would be complicated to campaign. Under these conditions, it seems to us impossible to hold this second round at the end of June "and" there is also a risk of a premium for outgoing mayors, who for example distributed masks during the crisis, "explained the LFI representative.

The deputy and president of Debout la France Nicolas Dupont-Aignan also pointed to "two blockages" for June, "a health block because we have not yet taken stock of deconfinement" and a "democratic block" because " the French are not ready to vote after the fiasco of the 1st round and the problem of the campaign means that there will be no campaign and that there will be very little participation ”.

According to the president of the UDI Jean-Christophe Lagarde, a poll in June risks "to eliminate any democratic debate" with "a particular campaign, without public meeting, without distribution of leaflets" and "a part of the electorate (which ) will be afraid to vote ”. "This will distort the result of the poll in the municipalities where it is the most disputed," according to Lagarde, who is in favor of the municipal elections taking place at the same time as the departmental and regional ones in March 2021.

Too early to decide after 9 days of deconfinement

Conversely, Christian Jacob said that "from the moment health conditions are met", he was "favorable to the elections being held as quickly as possible and especially in June".

If the second round takes place in January 2021, "it upsets the entire electoral calendar and it postpones almost a year the entire public order with consequences in terms of significant employment," lamented the head of LR.

The national secretary of the PCF Fabien Roussel affirmed that June or not, it was "very shared, in all the parties". “With us, it's 50/50. We hope that the elections will be held as soon as possible ”. RN Vice-President Jordan Bardella said that for his party it was "very difficult to (decide) since they have access to information that we do not have" and that "nine days after the deconfinement, it is still too early to say whether or not we can vote on June 28".

  • Municipal
  • Edouard Philippe
  • Coronavirus