CHRONICLE – In a video of a few minutes, broadcast Thursday, January 6 on C8, Éric Zemmour has just launched an appeal to the president of the Association of Mayors of France, David Lisnard, to promote the collection of the 500 signatures necessary for the presentation of a candidacy for the presidential election.
I would like to remind you that at the dawn of the Fifth Republic, and for the first three presidential elections in 1965, 1969 and 1974, not 500 signatures were required, but only 100. Inspirer of our institutions, General de Gaulle had indicated to one of his close companions, Gaston Palewski, President of the Constitutional Council from 1965 to 1974: ” I want a Tixier-Vignancour to be able to show up “. Candidate in December 1965, lawyer Jean-Louis Tixier-Vignancour won 5.2% of the vote.
Everyone knows that, since an organic law of June 18, 1976, 500 signatures are therefore required, and that François Hollande was behind the publication of the list of mayors who sponsored a candidate for the presidential election, which leads to an obvious reluctance of local elected officials who do not intend to be too marked politically, even if it is nevertheless a question of promoting the normal exercise of democracy.
What is perhaps less known, however, is that another attempt to limit the number of candidates for the presidential election was made at the end of 1973, with the adoption by the Senate. , with the agreement of the Messmer government, of a bill tending to establish a deposit of 25 parliamentarians to apply for the supreme office.
Meeting Christian Fouchet in January 1974, I broached this subject with the former minister and traveling companion of the general for 30 years. Admittedly, this does not date from yesterday. But his categorical response today takes on a special tone. ” They won’t dare to go that far, he told me. Consider that with such a system, General de Gaulle, General de Gaulle, he insisted, could not have been a candidate in 1957. He would not have had 25 parliamentarians with him. But if they go that far then I’ll cry legal coup ».
The bill adopted in the Senate was then abandoned, and the guarantee of parliamentarians never saw the light of day.
But, in this month of January 2022, it is quite clear that if a candidate like Éric Zemmour, repeatedly collecting between 13 and 16% of the voting intentions in the polls, could not be a candidate, failing to collect the 500 signatures from at least 30 departments, this would clearly mean that the political parties would have regained possession of the Republic, by having established – following the publication of the list of sponsorships, a monopoly on the presentation of candidates reserved for large political groups .
Insidiously, a heavy blow would be dealt to the Fifth Republic and to French democracy.
For all those who proclaim their attachment to our institutions, the time has come to remember the teachings of General de Gaulle and allow all opinions to be expressed.
Alain Tranchant is a former Departmental Delegate of the Movement for the Future of the French People (chaired by Christian Fouchet).