François Bayrou creates a site to sponsor candidates with more than 10% in the polls

Europe 1 with AFP 10:57 a.m., February 10, 2022

The president of the MoDem, François Bayrou, announced this Thursday the creation of a site which offers mayors the opportunity to sponsor candidates for the presidential election who have not obtained the necessary 500 sponsorships, provided that they "reach 10 % in the polls", facing "an immense risk" for democracy according to him.

"It's a bank of democratic sponsorships", so that "the mayors come together and distribute the necessary signatures", explained the centrist leader on BFMTV and RMC, specifying that the dedicated site notredémocratie.fr was launched "this morning ".

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It will allow mayors, who "have the feeling that the publicity that will be made on their signature will be interpreted as support for candidates", to sponsor candidates with "a simple criterion: to reach 10% in the polls", i.e. "4 million voting intentions," he said.

"Can candidates who are at this level be excluded from the election by the sponsorship mechanism?" Questioned François Bayrou, while Jean-Luc Mélenchon (LFI), Marine Le Pen (RN) and Eric Zemmour (Reconquête!), high in the polls, all three say they have difficulty obtaining 500 signatures.

"Guarantors of Democracy"

Candidates have until March 4 to collect these sponsorships, the deadline set by the Constitutional Council.

François Bayrou especially insisted on the "transpartisan" side of his initiative.

"It's an approach that consists of saying 'we are the guarantors of democracy'", he underlined, faced with a "risk of destabilization, loss of confidence, feeling that the election will not be sincere," he said.

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This is "not to say that we agree with" these "top" candidates, but it is "so that (they) can present themselves".

"I do not share the political opinion of Jean-Luc Mélenchon, Marine Le Pen and Eric Zemmour, but I would find it abnormal, and even scandalous, that they could not present themselves," he said.

"I cannot bear that democracy is thus unbalanced, destabilized", further argued the High Commissioner for Planning.

In addition, François Bayrou, who has still not given his sponsorship, also repeated "support the President of the Republic", while indicating that "in two weeks, we will see what is going on".