In front of a coffin symbolically filled with ballots, the Animalist Party called on mayors in Paris on Saturday to sponsor them to “save democracy” and “political pluralism” rather than supporting candidates who have already exceeded 500 sponsorships.
“Of the 500 sponsorships needed to stand in the presidential election, some have far more than necessary. Some have 1,050, 1,249 (and) brag on the Internet, ”denounced Hélène Thouy, co-founder of the Animalist Party and presidential candidate, referring respectively to Emmanuel Macron and Valérie Pécresse.
“With each additional sponsorship, it is a nail that is driven into this coffin of democracy and political pluralism”, she declared, during this “burial ceremony of democratic pluralism” in front of the headquarters of the Association of Mayors of France (AMF) in Paris.
Intimidation and blackmail
The Animalist Party chose this “symbolic” place because “80% of the people who can give sponsorship are mayors”, specified the lawyer at the Bordeaux bar, which has 56 sponsorships. She therefore called on them to sponsor her and “to stop sponsoring those who already have too many sponsorships, those who are drying up democracy, those who are stifling it and those who are drying it up”.
Since the filing of sponsorships opened before the Constitutional Council on January 27, 2022, several elected officials had indicated their intention to sponsor her, continued the candidate, but they withdrew because, according to her, they would have been intimidated, such as a loss of subsidies for the municipality or a refusal of nomination in the next elections, in particular on the part of hunters.
“Have the courage to fight against the pressures, the intimidation of all those who have an interest in what our word does not carry”, concluded the candidate who defends in particular the anti-species association L214.
Since the Animalist Party won 2.2% of the vote in the European elections in May 2019, creating a surprise and doing almost equal play with the Communists and the centrists of the UDI, the subject of the animal cause has been invited to more and more in the political debate.
Hélène Thouy announced her candidacy for the presidency in July 2021 and the first meeting of the party will take place on Saturday evening in Orléans.