By recording less than 5% of the votes in the first round of the presidential election, Yannick Jadot (EELV), Anne Hidalgo (PS) or Valérie Pécresse (LR) find themselves faced with a complex financial situation.
After the first results on Sunday April 10, the environmental candidate launched a call for donations.
He was imitated the next day by the representative of the Republicans.
According to the electoral code, these candidates who have arrived below the 5% threshold can however benefit from a reimbursement by the State limited to 800,000 euros.
It is a failure that could cost them dearly.
In the aftermath of the first round of the presidential election, several "historic" political parties are facing a critical economic situation.
Having arrived below the fateful threshold of 5% of the votes cast, Yannick Jadot (EELV), Valérie Pécresse (LR) or even Anne Hidalgo (PS) will not be able to benefit from the same public aid as the candidates who have won more votes.
However, these sums allow the parties to reimburse the expenses, sometimes very significant, advanced to finance the electoral campaign.
Anticipated by some candidates, these poor scores have plunged two parties – the ecologists of EELV and Les Républicains – into serious financial difficulty.
To respond to this, the two political parties have already launched a call for donations from their activists.
What are the conditions for being reimbursed by the State?
In France, the Electoral Code strictly regulates the reimbursement of campaign expenses.
The amount of public aid paid to candidates depends on their score obtained on election day.
A threshold was thus set at 5% of the vote.
For those who stand in the presidential election and who exceed 5% of the vote, the State undertakes to reimburse 47% of the maximum ceilings defined by law, ie nearly 8 million euros.
For this presidential election, only Emmanuel Macron, Marine Le Pen, Jean-Luc Mélenchon and Eric Zemmour will be able to claim such a check.
On the other hand, for the other eight candidates, the reimbursement cannot exceed 4.7% of the maximum amount authorized for campaigning, which is equivalent to 800,000 euros.
“The amount of reimbursement of expenses is taken into account in the expenses of parties and candidates and in the electoral strategies put in place.
Some, for example, anticipate their scores and are led to carry out more modest campaigns, ”explains Clément Desrumaux, lecturer in political science at the University Lumière (Lyon-2).
During the previous presidential election in 2017, the campaign led by Philippe Poutou was, for example, almost entirely reimbursed by the State.
The NPA candidate had campaigned with only 767,723 euros and benefited from 766,543 euros in public aid after the first round.
Are the parties that have arrived below the 5% mark financially threatened?
Sunday evening, as soon as the first estimates were published, the environmental candidate Yannick Jadot (4.63%) called on his voters to financially support his party.
A site has even been put online to collect these donations.
Contacted by
20 Minutes,
Marine Tondelier, co-treasurer of EELV details: “Seeing the risk of being credited with less than 5% of votes, we had already reduced the sails for several weeks.
Initially, we had a budget of 8 million euros but we only spent 6 million.
And unlike other political parties, our formation is absolutely not in debt”.
However, the spokesperson for Yannick Jadot recognizes that the situation is "very difficult": "To be able to calmly approach the legislative elections, we really need to find 2 million euros in the next five weeks".
On the right, Valérie Pécresse (4.78%) also launched a call for donations this Monday morning.
“The financial situation of my campaign is now critical,” she told the press, adding that she was “personally in debt to the tune of 5 million euros”.
“I need your emergency assistance by May 15 to cover my campaign expenses (…).
The survival of the Republicans depends on it, ”she concluded, her face closed.
Finally, for the Socialist Party, already weakened in 2017, the situation would be more contained.
Invited this Monday on Franceinfo, First Secretary Olivier Faure assured that the party was "not at all on the verge of bankruptcy".
Unlike EELV and LR, the PS did not resort to a bank loan, he said: “We self-financed the campaign and therefore there is no debt to repay.
“As
Le Figaro
pointed out in particular a few weeks ago, the party had recourse to loans from its departmental federations, which will be transformed into donations at the end of this disappointing first round for Anne Hidalgo (1.75 %).
What can be the consequences for the parties concerned?
After its bitter defeat in the presidential election but especially in the legislative elections of 2017, the PS had been forced to sell its historic headquarters on rue de Solférino and to launch a social plan among its employees.
To cope with these financial disappointments, the parties often rely on their real estate.
In difficulty since 2007, the PCF had taken the decision to rent several floors of its Parisian headquarters.
In 2011, the National Front (now the National Rally) managed to sell its premises in Saint-Cloud for 10 million euros in order to pay off its debts.
But Clément Desrumaux, lecturer in political science, nuance: “The finances of the parties in France depend above all on their results in the legislative elections.
Indeed, the election of a certain number of deputies in at least 50 constituencies makes it possible to release public funding.
For the formations which find themselves in tense financial situations at the end of the first round of the presidential election, there is a real challenge at the time of the legislative elections”.
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