Europe 1 with AFP 10:36 a.m., February 15, 2022

Jean Lassalle announced on France 2 to have gathered 498 sponsorships for his candidacy for the presidential election.

The deputy of Pyrénées-Atlantiques welcomed his "little mattress in advance" but remains cautious, continuing his mobilization to obtain the signatures of the mayors.

In particular, he praised the application validation system.

Declared presidential candidate Jean Lassalle assured Monday that he had filed 498 sponsorships with the Constitutional Council and defended this system, the "best there is" according to him, despite criticism from those who are struggling to bring them together.

"I have 498 sponsorships filed with the Constitutional Council and I have a small mattress in advance but it must be reinforced further because the last time I had lost some, so 498 is not too bad", s' is delighted on France 2 the deputy of the Pyrénées-Atlantiques.

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According to him, this application validation system, "it's the best there is".

"You saw the citizen primary, what happened with Madame Taubira...", added the president of the Résistons! movement, credited with 1% of voting intentions in the latest Ipsos-Soprasteria poll.

"The mayors are in touch, they are the first among us who see our citizens every day, but only we must not go to see them once in a while, the mayors suffer every day, the mayors are on the front line and I was mayor for 42 years, I kept in touch with them", he explained.

Jean Lassalle obtained 435,365 votes (1.21%) in the 2017 presidential election.

The sponsorship race continues

Several candidates currently much better placed than him in the polls, such as Eric Zemmour, Marine Le Pen, Jean-Luc Mélenchon or Christiane Taubira, have more difficulty in gathering the 500 sponsorships necessary to contest the presidential election.

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Hélène Thouy, co-founder of the Animalist Party, recently called on mayors to sponsor her to "save democracy" and "political pluralism" and NPA candidate Philippe Poutou denounced a "political problem" with an "additional anti-democratic side more fully assumed".