Municipal: participation, issue 1 of an exceptional second round - France 24

Paris (AFP)

The second round of municipal elections will be held on Sunday in nearly 5,000 municipalities, with two major challenges: the revival of participation despite the continuing health crisis, and several large cities that may rock under the push of the Greens.

More than 157,000 candidates and 16.5 million voters are concerned by this extraordinary ballot, more than three months after the postponement in extremis of the vote, initially scheduled for March 22, because of Covid-19.

A second round under enhanced health protection, with the wearing of a mandatory mask at polling stations, hydroalcoholic gel and priority for vulnerable people to vote.

- 15% of the municipalities concerned

Voting will take place in 4,820 municipalities, as well as in the districts and sectors of Paris, Lyon, Marseille, where the councils were not fully elected on March 15. A second round which mainly concerns the cities, since the rural communes massively concluded the election from the first round.

Besides the traditional duels, the candidates will compete in 786 triangular and 155 quadrangular.

- Convince to vote, two proxies

The first challenge will be that of participation, after the plunge in the first round, when less than one voter in two (44.3% against 63.5% in 2014) had come to vote due to the risk of contamination.

At the end of a campaign often confined to social networks and the media, massive abstention is looming again. Six out of ten French people concerned may not go to vote, according to several polls. An even higher proportion than in the first round. But many voters do not decide until the last moment.

Main innovation, of limited scope, to facilitate voting: the same proxy may have two proxies instead of one, to allow a larger number of people, especially the elderly, to vote without having to travel.

- The big cities in the balance

This is the other big issue of the ballot. No more irremovable mayors who chose their successors! The results promise to be tight this time in a dozen major cities in France.

In Paris, Anne Hidalgo (PS) seems in a position to keep the city on the left, with around 44% of voting intentions, far ahead of her competitors LR Rachida Dati and LREM Agnès Buzyn.

"She led a political project which succeeded in containing the ecological push which one records elsewhere and she managed to mobilize her electorate", analyzes Bernard Sananès of the institute of studies Elabe.

But the outcome of the ballot is very uncertain in Lyon, Marseille, Toulouse, Strasbourg, Montpellier or even Lille, mainly under pressure from environmentalists.

- LREM, bad start

End of the chore for La République en Marche: few of its candidates are well placed - with the exception of Strasbourg - and the low-cost campaign has hardly allowed them to make themselves known. "Beyond the unpopularity it generates, macronism remains a strong movement at the national level, but which until now has not succeeded in establishing itself" on the territory, underlines Bernard Sananès.

Sunday evening, the result at Le Havre, where Edouard Philippe plays his future at Matignon, will be highly anticipated. The Prime Minister, who is experiencing a resurgence in popularity, is credited with 53% of voting intentions (Ifop). But the importance of the stake can mobilize the abstainers of the first round.

- Right / left to confirm

Inaudible at the national level, the Socialist Party and The Republicans have recovered their health locally. The PS is able to keep its strongholds - Paris, Nantes, Rennes, Dijon - and should regain the level it was in after the loss of very many cities in 2014.

The Republicans confirmed their establishment by winning in the first round many of the cities with more than 9,000 inhabitants they controlled. But a defeat in Marseille, which the right has held for 25 years, or in Toulouse, the fourth city of France, would have a strong political resonance.

- Towards a "green wave"?

Carried by the environmentalist wave, the EELV candidates are targeting several big cities, including Grenoble, Lyon, Strasbourg, Besançon, to confirm their establishment, and they denounce "anti-ecological fronts" to make them barrage. For the Greens, who have long served as an auxiliary force, it is also a question of asserting themselves as the first on the left before the next electoral deadlines.

Main opponent of Emmanuel Macron at the national level, the National Rally defers him, his hopes on Perpignan, which in case of victory would be the first city of more than 100,000 inhabitants controlled by the party since 1995.

- "Third round"

The municipal councilors, elected for six years, will then meet from Friday 3 to Sunday 5 July to elect the mayors and their assistants. And in some cities, it will actually be necessary to wait for this "third round" to know the name of the mayor.

Voters will also elect on Sunday, and on the same ballot, the community councils of some 1,100 communities of municipalities, metropolises or agglomerations, where local government is now concentrated. Inter-municipal authorities whose role will be essential for economic recovery after the health crisis.

© 2020 AFP