Paris (AFP)

The president of the group of deputies rebellious France Jean-Luc Mélenchon proposed Tuesday to replace the traditional sponsorship of 500 mayors to compete in the presidential election by 150,000 signatures of citizens, in order to ensure the "legitimacy" of the ballot.

During a press conference at the National Assembly, the rebellious leader relied on the report of the commission "For a democratic renewal" chaired by the former Socialist Prime Minister Lionel Jospin in 2012, which advocated such measure, identifying several flaws in the traditional sponsorship system.

Jean-Luc Mélenchon also underlined the high abstention which has become chronic and the coronavirus pandemic, which would make “door-to-door collection at town halls perhaps impossible” for the poll scheduled for 2022.

"Suppose that a candidacy does not benefit from a political machine rooted in the territories with elected officials, and that it is prevented from participating in the presidential election, the result would be illegitimate and distorted", judged the leader of the Rebellious.

"It would be a very serious damage if someone from the traditional arc could not come forward. Let us protect France from a possibility of discussing the value of this ballot," he added.

While he could declare himself a candidate at the beginning of November, is he worried about not succeeding in collecting 500 signatures of mayors, in a context for the moment very fragmented on the left - the Communists for example considering proposing their own application?

"In the past we had no difficulty. But you never know if we are going to have any, I do not want to be proud here and say that I am assured in advance," he explained.

“For 2017 we had 666 signatures then the Communists made us go up to more than 900”, said the deputy of Bouches-du-Rhône.

According to him, the device of "popular investiture" could be adopted as organic law and does not require modification of the Constitution.

In practice, the 150,000 signatures should come from at least 30 departments, with a ceiling of 5% of the total signatures for any department.

Candidates who had poor results have always collected at least 150,000 votes, argued Jean-Luc Mélenchon.

"The popular investiture" will be proposed during the parliamentary niche of LFI on May 6, but the Insoumis indicated to take advantage of the establishment of a commission reflecting on a possible postponement of the departmental and regional of March to make it public from Tuesday, judging the themes close.

© 2020 AFP