- This Friday, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe announced the long-awaited date for the second round of municipal elections canceled in March due to the coronavirus pandemic: it will be June 28.
- "The least worst of solutions," says Agnès Le Brun, spokesperson for the Association of Mayors of France, for whom economic and social recovery, after two months of confinement, requires having mayors elected everywhere.
- The fact remains that this second round promises to be complicated. Both in the organization of the voting day and in the campaign for the second round. Agnès Le Brun says the mayors "ready to start working so that everything goes well".
There were two options on the table for the municipal elections in the 5,000 or so municipalities that still did not elect a mayor after the cancellation of the second round in March. That of starting all over again later, namely at the beginning of 2021, an option requiring the organization of two ballots. Or that of organizing a second round as soon as possible, from June 28, but in a still complicated health context linked to the coronavirus epidemic.
It was this second option that the government finally retained after consulting the country's political forces, announced this Friday noon, from Matignon, Edouard Philippe. "The arguments are opposed, they are all powerful and eminently respectable, said the Prime Minister before agreeing with the opinion of" those who stressed the need in which we are, and for a long time probably, to living with the virus and therefore bringing our democracy to life and not putting it on hold ”.
The least worst solution? Agnès Le Brun, spokesperson for the Association of Mayors of France - also various right mayor of Morlaix - answers questions from 20 Minutes.
Was this option of June 28 finally the one also preferred by a majority of mayors?
The majority of mayors are close to their populations and they know that economic and social recovery is absolutely essential today. However, this can hardly be done without the communities and the projects they carry out. This is why at the AMF we had effectively declared our preference for the organization of a second round in June.
There were other arguments as well. The other option, for example, involved different terms of office between the mayors elected from March 15 and those who would be elected after the two rounds that should have been organized in early June. It's annoying. And why, moreover, do away with the first round of March 15 in only certain municipalities and not in all. The time is no longer for comments anyway. The decision was made by the government, and we are now going to start working so that everything will work well on June 28.
Should we still expect this second round to be very disrupted?
Everything has been special anyway since March 15. The organization of the first round had already been the subject of special precautions. It was the presence of hydroalcoholic gel in the polling stations, the invitation to come with his pen, the use of gloves for the assessors etc. These barrier measures have worked rather well if we judge by the study conducted by epidemiologists and statisticians published last week.
These precautions will be further reinforced on June 28. I note, for example, that Christophe Castaner mentioned this Friday midday the wearing of the compulsory mask in the polling stations.
Some mayors, like Christophe Bouchet, mayor of Tours, opposed the organization of this second round in June. If only because of the difficulty in organizing this second round. How to recognize voters with masks, how to find assessors, he raised in particular…
I hear his arguments, but what is the proposal then? All have drawbacks and if we compare them, organizing a second round on June 28 seems to us to be the least worst of the solutions. Regarding assessors, for example, it is usually people who volunteer to fulfill this mission. But we can also requisition elected officials when they are lacking. This is what has sometimes been done in previous elections.
There is the organization of the vote, June 28, but also the campaign of the second round… How do you see it in this particular health context
It is indeed a real subject. Inevitably, a set of practices will no longer be possible. Door-to-door, towing, hugs, public meetings, cafes etc. But even before the coronavirus crisis, political approaches have evolved. Meetings, for example, are less successful. People are less sensitive to the great decorum of the countryside when we were in a well-established bipartisanship. People today prefer more lively formats, considered more sincere.
This second round which opens will force us to invent new formats. As mentioned by Edouard Philippe and Christophe Castaner, it can actually go through a digital campaign, even if I only half believe it. In rural areas, it will not work very well like that, for example. On the other hand, the campaign should actually go more in writing. One can imagine longer, more explanatory professions of faith, but also more debate in the media. In any case, we will have to move forward, reinvent ourselves if we want to preserve democratic life. There is an advantage, however, again recalled by Edouard Philippe as by Christophe Castaner: this time, the second round will last a month and not five days as usual. In a way, this additional delay is compensation. It will allow candidates to explain their projects further.
* Coordinated by the Clinical Epidemiology Center of the Hôtel-Dieu (Paris), the study concludes that the holding of the first round, on March 15, did not statistically accelerate the circulation of the new coronavirus, without however denying that contaminations may have occurred.
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