Victor Chabert 07:02, January 27, 2022

As of this Thursday, the race for sponsorships is launched. Authorized elected officials have five weeks to send their signatures by post to the Constitutional Council. If this is not a problem for Emmanuel Macron, although he is not yet a candidate, nor for Valérie Pécresse or Anne Hidalgo, on the side of Jean-Luc Mélenchon, Eric Zemmour or Marine Le Pen, it is a race against the clock which begins.

The decree on sponsorships for the presidential election is published this Thursday.

Candidates for the Presidency of the Republic now have nearly five weeks, until March 4 at 6 p.m., to obtain the precious 500 signatures from nearly 42,000 elected officials, including 34,000 mayors.

The Constitutional Council will publish the list of sponsorships updated in real time twice a week on its website, before its president, Laurent Fabius announces the list of candidates on Monday 7 March.

Whether they are confident about their ability to collect them or not, for all the candidates, there is something at stake.

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For Macron and Pécresse, the goal is to collect as much as possible

Emmanuel Macron is still not a candidate, but the outgoing president must collect as many signatures as possible.

Just like Valérie Pécresse.

If it only takes 500 officially to validate its definitive presence in the race for the Elysée, all the additional initials demonstrate the dynamics around the candidacy.

In such an indecisive presidential campaign, all markers are up for grabs.

In 2017, François Fillon held the record with 3,635 initials, Emmanuel Macron, he had 1,829.

Obtain more than 500 for Mélenchon, Le Pen and Zemmour

At the Insoumis as at Reconquête!, it is claimed to have exceeded 400. On the side of Marine Le Pen, the teams are more worried.

In reality, for candidates who are having difficulty collecting signatures, you should not aim for the number of 500, but rather try to have a mattress of 600 sponsorship promises.

Some signature commitments do not materialize in the sending of the precious sesame to the Council of Elders.

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On the side of the Constitutional Council, it is assured that if there is to be a revision of the system of 500 signatures, much criticized in this electoral campaign, this will have to be done at the start of the next five-year term.

By then, the race will be a little over five weeks, and if it can rejoice the candidates, it is longer than in 2017 when it was only three.