The sponsorship crisis: whose fault is it?

Nicolas Beytout 3:39 p.m., February 23, 2022

EDITORIAL

After the new salvo of sponsorships published yesterday by the Constitutional Council, 3 candidates credited with more than 10% of the voting intentions have not reached the threshold of 500 signatures, and are therefore threatened with not being able to present themselves.

Which would obviously be, as Jean Castex said yesterday in the Assembly, "a deeply democratic subject".

The Prime Minister therefore launched a solemn appeal to the mayors to sponsor the failed candidates, even if they do not support them politically.

A way, in reality, to put pressure on local elected officials when they have nothing to do with this looming institutional crisis.

Blame it on internal divisions

This responsibility is widely shared.

Let's start with the main culprits: the candidates themselves.

If Jean Lassalle and Nathalie Arthaud had their 500 signatures when their electoral potential is quite simply miniscule, it is because they started looking for sponsorship very early on.

They got involved in this drudgery, took it seriously, which the others, the great (or greater) candidates, the Le Pen, Zemmour, Mélenchon, did not do enough.

Another element of explanation, which again is the responsibility of the candidates themselves, their internal divisions.

If Marine Le Pen and Eric Zemmour are in lack of sponsorships, the total of signatures already garnered by these candidates who are both positioned on the far right is close to 800. Same observation on the opposite side of the political spectrum: if Jean-Luc Mélenchon has to date only 442 signatures, it is because the communist Fabien Roussel, who had faded behind him in the previous presidential election, this time decided to run on his own behalf and kept for him nearly 600 supporters.

And look, if we go even further to the left, Philippe Poutou who hoped to be the candidate of the New Anti-Capitalist Party for the presidential election for the third time, is stuck with only 224 signatures, because of a dissident who is already embezzling more than 100 precious supports.

This is the reverse of the well-known motto:

But also of François Hollande

It is also the responsibility of François Hollande, who had in his time imposed that the names of the sponsors be made public, provoking the mistrust of local elected officials who do not want to be bored.

But also Emmanuel Macron, yet widely informed of the democratic disaster that almost happened for the same reasons 5 years ago, during the previous presidential election, but who did nothing to reform the system.

And then François Bayrou, with his idea of ​​a sponsorship bank which surely starts with a good intention, but risks demotivating the mayors who were about to move a little to sign, and also gives the impression of small arrangements between friends, since he is going to distribute signatures to candidates who are out of order, without anyone knowing how many or on what criteria.

Until now,

A system struggling to survive

Concretely, Jean Castex invited all the associations of local elected officials to a meeting in Matignon, Thursday morning.

There will be one week left for the final sprint, and there is a good chance that 10 or 11 candidates will be on the starting line of the race at the Elysée, which is a fairly classic pattern.

It is then up to the winner to revise this system of sponsorships from the start of his term of office which, by giving the detestable image of a system struggling to survive, does more harm than good to democracy.