Paris (AFP)

The President (LR) of the Senate Gérard Larcher on Tuesday gave his blank check to a postponement of the regional elections in June 2021, arguing for a "peaceful expression of democracy" in the context of the health crisis.

The report of the former president of the Constitutional Council Jean-Louis Debré on a possible postponement of regional and departmental, initially scheduled for March 2021, due to the Covid-19 epidemic will be given to Jean Castex on Friday morning.

Mr. Larcher, who received Mr. Debré in the Senate on October 28, believes in an interview with Le Figaro that "we must prepare for the possibility of voting + while living with the virus +".

"Even if the respect of dates is preferable in a democracy, I am not opposed to a postponement of the poll to the end of spring for health reasons," he adds.

However, he underlines having "told the President of the Republic and the Prime Minister" that this must be done "without ulterior motive": "the time is not for political calculations, but for the peaceful expression of democracy in a complicated health, economic and social universe ".

For a ballot before the summer, "we must create the conditions for appeasement", he continues: "we must secure the vote, study the possibility of double proxies, work on postal voting and the material organization of ballots ".

He also calls for "to think about the conditions of the electoral campaign which is to take place and the campaign accounts" - which could telescope those of the campaign for the presidential one.

The President of the Senate, who again criticizes "the erratic management of the first wave and the lack of preparation for deconfinement" by the government, considers that "if we see that things are not improving, new measures will have to be taken" to try to curb the epidemic, and judges that "we could not confine the seniors without debating it in front of Parliament because it is discrimination".

He calls above all to "start now to prepare for deconfinement as well as the spring vaccination strategy" with local elected officials.

The government must also "involve the Parliament" more, he said, being offended that since March the parliamentarians have been consulted "four times on the state of health emergency" but "that we are imposed for the following six months. not to consult us any more! ", whereas" the state of emergency is a very strong attack on freedoms ".

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