Paris (AFP)

"To govern is to foresee": the National Assembly examines on Friday a bill that would allow both the postponement of the second round of municipal elections in the event of a resurgence of the coronavirus epidemic and a facilitated proxy vote if takes place on June 28.

We must "prepare for all scenarios", launched the Minister of the Interior Christophe Castaner at the start of the debates.

According to a parliamentary source, "it is emblematic of + governing is foreseeing +": it is a question of avoiding "doing everything at will", as could have been the case during this crisis.

The majority however remains confident in the holding of the ballot on June 28.

On a LREM and MoDem proposal, the deputies added in committee the possibility for the same representative to have two proxies instead of one.

This will make it easier for people at risk not wishing to travel to the polling stations - where the mask will be mandatory - to delegate. The proxy must however be registered in the same municipality as the elector giving his proxy, contrary to what the Senate with a right-wing majority wants, which voted an LR proposal to this effect this week.

Participation collapsed to 44.6% in the first round on March 15, at the very beginning of the Covid-19 wave in France, against 63.5% in 2014. Bringing the French back to the polls is one of the issues the second round, for which parties and associations of elected officials were associated.

There is no question, however, of authorizing remote or postal electronic voting: they are not sufficiently secure. Mailing would require sanitary conditions in post offices as high as in polling stations, justify the "walkers".

- "Heavy decision" -

Originally scheduled for March 22, the second round of municipal elections was postponed in extremis due to the epidemic, which sparked controversy. In late May, the government set a date for June 28.

The bill provides, "if the health situation does not allow the organization of the second round in June 2020", to cancel the first round for the 5,000 municipalities concerned.

And to organize "a new ballot with two rounds (...) when the health situation allows it, and at the latest in January 2021".

The decision of a possible postponement will be taken after two new opinions of the scientific council responsible for guiding the public authorities in the management of the crisis linked to Covid-19, on June 8 and 14.

The president of the scientific council, Pr Jean-François Delfraissy, himself judged Friday that the Covid-19 epidemic is currently "controlled" in France.

The majority do not believe in a deterioration by the end of June. "It is rare to vote a law that will not apply!" Exclaims a LREM member who is hopeful, given the latest figures in hospitals and the acceleration of deconfinement.

A government amendment for the session provides for the possibility of locally canceling the second round in the event of "clusters". "It's additional security," says Castaner.

The choice of principle of June 28 was "a heavy decision, which was not the subject of a consensus of all the political parties even if a majority was in favor of it," recalled the minister in committee.

The time is no longer for differences, and only 15 amendments have been tabled for the meeting.

The bill also provides for the postponement to May 2021 of the consular elections which were to be held in May of this year for French nationals established outside France.

© 2020 AFP