As the race for endorsements heats up, concerns are growing for applicants who have not yet reached the required 500 signatures. Ten days after the launch of a site on the initiative of the MoDem to help the “big” candidates to obtain them, a reserve of 80 and a few elected officials was formed, said Mr. Bayrou Monday on France 2. Marine Le Pen, the candidate of the National Rally (RN), for her part launched a video call to the mayors to obtain the 50 sponsorships she lacks and alert about what she considers a “scandal” democracy which risks, according to her, “deprive” from “million voters” of the presidential election.
The president of the MoDem, Mr. Bayrou, a close ally of Emmanuel Macron, also warned on Monday against “a democratic tsunami” if the candidates representing more than 10% of the voting intentions, failed to present themselves, for lack of signatures, citing in particular Marine Le Pen, Eric Zemmour and Jean-Luc Mélenchon.
The “theft of the election” argument put forward by Mr.me Le Pen
“We have three major candidates in this election above 10%, and even reaching 15%, which means 4 or 5 million voting intentions that do not have sponsorships”, underlined Mr. Bayrou again. And to ensure: “In the past, we said “they are bluffing”, [mais] they’re not bluffing. » He recalled that the sponsorships which will be given to these three candidates will not be worth “no support” but that they are granted out of democratic concern.
It is in a similar spirit that the mayor of Cannes, affiliated with the party Les Républicains (LR), David Lisnard, also president of the Association of Mayors of France (AMF), announced Sunday evening to give his sponsorship to Mr. Mélenchon, of whom he nevertheless says ” farthest “. The candidate of La France insoumise, who has so far only obtained 370 supporters, thanked the city councilor for his gesture in a tweet mondaythe latter recalling that “sponsoring is not supporting”.
Marine Le Pen, who has, for the moment, 366 signatures, has, for her part, continued to rebel. “I miss today 50 sponsorships. How is this scandal possible when my candidacy gathered more than 11 million voters in the second round of the 2017 presidential election? », she says facing the camera, her tone serious. A dramatization that the far-right candidate justifies by the fact that she would be, according to her, « the main opponent of Emmanuel Macron and that the polls [la] give to the gates of victory”.
Addressing the city councilors who have not yet granted their sponsorship, she adds “If you don’t help me, millions of voters will be deprived of an election. France, you know, is a pressure cooker, the social situation is already eruptive and social institutions, more fragile than ever. “It is unthinkable to let a few politicians pressure our democracy to steal this election,” continue Mme Le Pen, arguing that if the republican pact is broken”the election will not have “no value”.
Several candidates in difficulty
The RN candidate is not the only one to alert on the subject of sponsorships. Eric Zemmour and Jean-Luc Mélenchon also say they have trouble collecting the signatures necessary to validate their applications. Smaller candidates, such as Anasse Kazib (Permanent Revolution) and Gaspard Koenig (Simple), have also appealed to mayors on the set of the program “C politique” Sunday on France 5.
On the left, the candidacy of Christiane Taubira is also in danger since the candidate has so far only received 86 signatures, on “more than 600 sponsorship promises”, she assured Sunday on BFM-TV. “There is an explanation to be found between having so many promises and having so few sponsorships materialized”, estimated the winner of the popular Primary, which brought together nearly 400,000 voters in early January, before adding: “We are in a democratic interrogation. »
Less than two weeks before the end of the collection of signatures, the parties and candidates are therefore mobilized on the ground to win the support of elected officials. “We are launching a general mobilization today, all the elected representatives of the National Rally are called upon to make phone calls all day”said RN MEP Thierry Mariani on Monday on Public Senate. Eric Zemmour, who currently has 291 sponsorships, has for his part decided to cancel a planned trip to Reunion to be able to call the mayors directly.
The Constitutional Council, which will publish new updated sponsorship lists on Tuesday and Thursday, has set Friday March 4, 6 p.m. as the deadline for presenting its 500 signatures and formally declaring itself a candidate. Emmanuel Macron, who has not yet made a declaration of candidacy, Valérie Pécresse (Les Républicains), Anne Hidalgo (Socialist Party), Fabien Roussel (French Communist Party), Jean Lassalle (Let’s resist!) and Nathalie Arthaud (Worker’s struggle) , are the six people to have so far reached the milestone of 500 sponsorships.