Can ministers campaign for Macron on social media?

• Many ministers have posted messages of support for candidate Emmanuel Macron on social media.

  An action criticized by members of the opposition, who denounce a mixture of genres.

• The Electoral Code does not exactly provide for this scenario.

• The National Electoral Campaign Control Commission has, however, made recommendations.

Minister or support for candidate Emmanuel Macron for the presidential election, should we choose?

The border seems very porous on social networks.

Gabriel Attal, Amélie de Montchalin, Olivier Véran, Jean-Michel Blanquer, Marlène Schiappa… In recent days, these members of the government have all tweeted from their usual Twitter account to promote Emmanuel Macron's meeting at La Défense Arena on 2 April.

Supporters of Valérie Pécresse were also annoyed by a video posted by the Minister Delegate for Transport, Jean-Baptiste Djebbari, on his TikTok account, in which he mocks the LR presidential candidate.

"In good place in the current competition for ministers illegally using the means of their ministry during a reserve period", criticized Alexandra Dublanche, coordinator of the campaign's "response" cell.

A "mixture of genres" which is denounced on Twitter by Valérie Boyer and by Internet users for whom the ministers think they are "above the law".

Senator Les Républicains des Bouches-du-Rhône sees this as an attack on the circular of the General Secretariat of the Government relating to the reserve period of ministers and government communication.

And asks, in another tweet, the National Commission for the Control of the Electoral Campaign "to act".

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What texts frame the minister's speeches?

"Nothing is said in the Electoral Code on the case of ministers and even less on the possibility of using means of propaganda and in particular social networks", explains to

Bruno Daugeron, professor of public law at the university. Paris-Cite.

The circular mentioned by Valérie Boyer corresponds to the note from the General Secretariat of the Government (SGG) recalling the rules of the reserve period, dated February 10.

It was revealed by  

, a media specializing in public policy.

This memorandum aims to prevent the government from being accused of using state resources in the electoral campaign.

Because a "sword of Damocles" hangs over these practices: article L52-8 of the Electoral Code, recalls Bruno Daugeron.

This “prohibits donations, in any form whatsoever, from legal persons.

The State or private individuals cannot fund campaigns.

The risk, "if public means are used, is that it will be considered as an advantage in kind of a prohibited legal person, and that this will lead to the invalidation of campaign accounts".

"No ambiguity about his personal and private character"

Part of this circular deals with the presence of members of the government on social networks.

A distinction is made between an official Twitter account and a personal account.

The general secretariat of the government clearly indicates that the official Twitter account of a minister cannot contain a message "which would constitute an involvement in the electoral campaign".

If it is a personal account, "no confusion" must be maintained with ministerial activities, the account must be presented in such a way that there is "no ambiguity about its personal character and private, separate from an official account”.

Bruno Daugeron reminds us that it is not so much the use of a Twitter account that is questionable from a legal point of view, because “Twitter is a private network”.

It is the possible use of public means to use this account during an election period that is problematic, for example by having recourse to collaborators paid by the State to supply the account, "introducing [thus] a disturbance of official communication public power and that of the candidate.

Distinguish accounts

This was pointed out by the National Commission for the Control of the Electoral Campaign (CNCCEP) based on article L52-1 of the Electoral Code.

In a February 28 statement, she stressed that, on social networks, the accounts of candidates or their supporters must not be "used in a manner confusing the exercise of official functions with propaganda relating to The electoral campaign ".

Ministers and elected officials must therefore, as part of the campaign, discard their account used for "long time" and "predominantly to relay messages relating to the exercise of public functions".

To avoid any confusion, the commission recommends creating separate accounts, dedicated to the campaign.

The ministers' calls to participate in Emmanuel Macron's meeting this Saturday therefore seem to contravene this framework, laid down by a simple press release.

Contacted by

, the Commission is silent and does not wish to confirm a breach of the rules, despite this previous press release.

It only indicates that it is “very much in demand” for this use.

Emmanuel Macron called to order

There is, however, a precedent.

On March 7, the CNCCEP called candidate Emmanuel Macron to order.

The Head of State was "invited" not to use his official account (7.9 million subscribers) to relay messages concerning the campaign, such as his letter to the French.

He had been forced to delete these tweets.

His camp then denounced unfair rules: several rivals, such as LR candidate Valérie Pécresse (446,000 Twitter followers), also president of the Ile-de-France region, or socialist Anne Hidalgo, mayor of Paris (1.5 million subscribers), continue to use their usual account.

A case illustrates well the fine and sometimes difficult demarcation between campaign and ministerial action, recalls Bruno Daugeron.

Amélie de Montchalin, Minister for the Civil Service, and Olivier Dussopt, Minister Delegate in charge of Public Accounts, held a press briefing on the use of consulting firms, following the McKinsey controversy.

“We are in a gray area, because it is not at all illegitimate for Amélie de Montchalin to speak out to explain how this remedy works in the State.

The problem is that, in her press conference, she nevertheless alludes to the electoral campaign and that her position on this subject is not neutral.

»

If a conflict were to arise from the holding of this press conference, "it would be up to the Constitutional Council, which is the judge of the election, to see, to assess what this type of press conference could have had as an impact on the progress of the ballot", concludes Bruno Daugeron.

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