“I am again asking for the confidence of voters on October 2 and 9 next” in the 2nd district of Yvelines, said Mr. Barrot in a press release, affirming that there is “a need for stability in the government as in Parliament”.
Mr. Barrot was re-elected in the June legislative elections with 64.27% of the vote in the second round, nearly six points better than five years earlier.
He had left his seat in the Assembly to his deputy Anne Grignon on August 4, a month after entering government as is the rule.
But she had announced her resignation on August 12, hence the new ballot, set for October 2 and 9.
"If the voters are called to the polls again, it is because an appeal has been lodged against the June election by the relative of a candidate beaten in the 1st round who relies, to replay the match, on a contradiction of electoral law", recalls Mr. Barrot.
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The Electoral Code prohibits a "substitute for a member of a parliamentary assembly" from running as a substitute for a deputy.
However, Ms. Grignon was a candidate in second position on the LREM list during the senatorial elections of September 2017 in the Yvelines.
This list having won only one seat, Ms. Grignon would in fact be the replacement for her elected running mate, in particular in the event of resignation or death.
Mr. Barrot chose to represent himself, and took as substitute this time Anne Bergantz, elected municipal official in Lévis-Saint-Nom.
It is the latter who would be required to occupy the seat at the Palais Bourbon in the event of the re-election of Mr. Barrot, who would remain minister.
© 2022 AFP