- 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.
- An option which thus opens a campaign of in-between turns of a month when it usually lasts five days. An advantage ? Not sure in these times of the Covid-19 health crisis.
At most, five days. A campaign between two rounds of a municipal election does not normally last longer. Just five days, "very short, very intense," insisted Edouard Philippe.
What will happen this time in the 5,000 or so municipalities still without mayors after the postponement of the second round of municipal elections, against the background of the health crisis linked to Covid-19, initially scheduled for March 22? After many consultations, the government has decided: this second round will be held on June 28, announced, this Friday noon, in a press conference, the Prime Minister and his Minister of the Interior.
A first round that dates back two months, a virus that is still circulating
This opens an election campaign of almost a month. What sounded like an advantage compared to the usual brevity of in-between turns in the mouth of Edouard Philippe. Really ? Alain Coulombel, national spokesperson for Europe Ecologie les Verts (EELV) like Pierre Jouvet, spokesperson for the Socialist Party in doubt, even if their parties were not opposed to this June 28 option. “This campaign will take place in a very new context, they both say. The first round dates back two months and we are still in a complex health situation with a circulating virus. "
It is not easy to campaign under these conditions. In its report submitted to the government on Tuesday, the scientific council underlined in any case "the major risks linked to the electoral campaign and more particularly to electoral meetings as well as to the actions of candidates resulting in meetings or physical gatherings (distribution of leaflets, door to door, public meetings, apartment meetings) ". He then recommended "other campaign methods, in particular through the use of digital". "It is a very limited option when you are in a territory like mine where the digital divide is significant," slips Jean-Pierre Blazy, outgoing PS mayor of Gonesse, in the Val d'Oise, who has not hidden his disagree with the June 28 option. There are fewer people connected in the northern suburbs of Paris when in the western suburbs. On the phone this Friday afternoon, the elected official did not imagine being able to cut themselves off from traditional countryside practices, "even if we take all the health precautions, starting with the mask".
"A presence on the ground which remains essential"
Alain Coulombel also evokes a puzzle. "Even if social media have become very important in the electoral campaign over the past decade, presence on the ground remains an important element in the dynamics of an election," said the spokesperson for EELV. Even in a second round. In big cities, there is almost always a meeting stalled in these few days, often Thursday. It is a crucial moment to mobilize the campaign teams and its base of voters and it is of particular importance when it also aims to present a merger between two lists. This time, it is certain, we will have to do without. "
Strong prejudice? Jean-Luc Moudenc, outgoing mayor of Toulouse and president of France Urbaine, association, which brings together the mayors of the big cities of France, does not think so. "The length will compensate for the traditional forms of voter mobilization that we will not find," he slips. Again, a second-round campaign lasts a maximum of five days, or even three when there is a recomposition of the list. There it will last a month. We cannot say that the public debate will be atrophied. On the contrary, it will be richer. "
The primacy of writing?
And then go more in writing? This is the lead advanced by Agnès Le Brun, various right mayor of Morlaix and spokesperson for the Association of Mayors of France, interviewed by 20 Minutes. "We can imagine professions of faith longer, more explanatory, but also more debate in the media," she said.
On condition of power, engages Pierre Jouvet. "There are specific rules governing the professions of faith in a traditional electoral campaign," he recalls. For example, there can only be one possible mailing to voters for each list, and the document must fit on a double-sided A4 sheet. The Socialist Party then asked that new rules be established to adapt to this particular situation. "On the profession of faith, we can imagine two possible sendings instead of one today or stay on one, but allow the campaign document to be longer," resumes Pierre Jouvet. Another important point is the fairness of the treatment of elections in the written press where equal treatment in the allocation of speaking times is more complicated to enforce than in the audiovisual press. "
French people who have no head in the elections?
It remains to be seen whether this new way of campaigning will re-mobilize voters? It is "THE" great unknown that both Jean-Pierre Blazy and Alain Coulombel point to. The first round had already been marked by record abstention with a rate of 55%. "I would like to be wrong, but I still feel it very strong," launched the mayor of Gonesse. Not only will some of the French people persist in this fear of going to vote. But the government has also announced that it will be possible to go on vacation this summer. However, the last weekend in June often marks the first holidays. We will add abstention to abstention. "
Empty polling stations on June 28 are also the concern of Jean-Luc Moudenc, who refers to the Elabe poll for BFMTV, published Wednesday. 55% of respondents say they are against the organization of a second round on June 28. "We must take into account the position of these French and offer them facilities to vote so that they feel neither excluded from the ballot, nor forced to go to the polling station, specifies Jean-Luc Modenc.
France Urbaine intends to make proposals to this effect to the government in the coming days. "We will probably not be equipped in time to allow Internet voting," says Jean-Luc Modenc. However, there are things that can be done to facilitate proxies or postal voting. This last modality, little known in France, allows voters to receive election materials at home and then mail the envelope containing their ballot. This Friday noon, Christophe Castaner said he was not in favor.
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