Will there be a second round of municipal elections?

On the evening of the first round of the municipal elections, when the results were not yet published, the question of postponing the second round was obvious. Faced with the scale of the coronavirus health crisis and the figures for record abstention, several political leaders have advanced this hypothesis as an increasingly likely outcome.

In the evening of Sunday, Olivier Véran, Minister of Health, estimated that the experts would be surveyed " without doubt " Tuesday to decide on the advisability of this postponement requested almost unanimously by the political class of the ecologist Yannick Jadot at the president of the Marine Le Pen National Gathering, believing that Sunday's poll could " obviously " not take place.

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Sunday morning, rumors of the cancellation of the first round had circulated until the opening of the polling stations, but ultimately, voters had been able to go to the polls, fewer than in 2014. For the second round, some had anticipated the question of postponement by linking it to the results of participation. Depending on the extent of the abstention, they were certain that the executive would have to make a decision.

Sunday, even before the offices opened, Dominique Bussereau had estimated that the participation figures were going to be the " justice of the peace " for the government. While he was "in solidarity " with the position of François Baroin favorable to the maintenance of the municipal elections, the president of the Assembly of the departments of France had taken note of the evolution of the management of the crisis, announced Saturday evening by Edouard Philippe. " Will he be able to maintain it according to the evolution of the health situation? Wondered the ex-minister, without ignoring the many political and legal questions that inevitably would cause a postponement of the second round.

I do not see from a practical point of view how we report. That means that we pass for idiots, because we missed the boat on Thursday. We know it

On the government side, several ministers and majority leaders had planned to travel to Matignon on Sunday evening. After the announcement of the coronavirus contamination of Christian Jacob, president of the Les Républicains party, this meeting was to be replaced by telephone calls. “ There must be 2-3 standing, anyway !” Slips a minister. Before the announcement of the results, a majority leader did not imagine for a second the cancellation of the second round. “ From a practical point of view, I don't see how we report. That means that we pass for idiots, because we missed the boat on Thursday. We know it. " What are we going to do with the elected mayors in the first round? Are they told that they are ultimately not elected? "Wonders another high ranking officer, who fought with the President of the Republic to obtain the postponement of the election, from Thursday. " We will look at how to do it, " says a prominent minister. “ We have to see if we act the first round, or if we postpone the two rounds, and see if constitutionally we need a law. Next Sunday, there will necessarily be even more people infected. "

"The unity of the nation"

On the right, the evening was to be a success for the Republicans who expected good scores in the first round. But with the coronavirus and the fall in participation, LR elected officials were becoming more and more worried on the evening of the first round. " With such an abstention, in my opinion, it is not tenable next Sunday. I do not understand that they let the first round be designated. I don't see how we get out of this bee-eater, ”confided a tenor LR. " This first round of the municipal elections took place in an unprecedented context due to the pandemic we are facing, " replied the President of the Senate in a press release, referring to " the many challenges that we will have to overcome in the coming days in the face of the crisis ”.

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Very quickly, from 8 p.m., LR elected officials asked for the postponement of the elections " taking into account the gravity of the situation ", in the words of Damien Abad. " We must confine everything ," explained the president of the LR group to the assembly " and avoid saturation of our resuscitation services ".

" Given these exceptional circumstances and the likely transition to total containment in a short time, " said Damien Abad in a press release, " this postponement of the second round of municipal elections seems to me to be more careful, more responsible and better able to be understood by the population. It is about the unity of the nation and our ability to get out of this pandemic . ”

It is clear that the Prime Minister's announcement at 7:40 p.m. on Saturday evening of Stadium 3 created a panic.

Given the stakes, Les Républicains wanted this decision to be taken " collectively ". LR number 2, Guillaume Peltier, and the president of the LR group in the Senate, Bruno Retailleau, therefore asked the Prime Minister to receive, as of Monday, the party presidents and the presidents of the parliamentary groups. Objective: finally decide this question and " make the best decision ", said Bruno Retailleau on the set of TF1, anxious to avoid " runaway " the last hours. " It is clear that the Prime Minister's announcement, at 7:40 p.m. on Saturday evening, of stadium 3 created a panic, " deplored the elected member of the Vendée. “ We are in a time when sanitation prevails. I think it will be necessary to postpone the elections for the 2nd round, "added the parliamentarian before estimating that it would be" very difficult to organize the second round on Sunday if we see the curve of contamination and seriously ill people " .

"Conflicting messages"

A few minutes later, directly from Le Havre, the Prime Minister responded favorably to the request. "At the beginning of the week I will meet the scientific council, then I will consult the representatives of the political forces. It is in total transparency taking into account the health recommendations and I hope in a spirit of Republican consensus that we will take the necessary measures , "declared the Prime Minister in the gallery. " If the government by extraordinary should not cancel the second round, I solemnly say to the French: do not go to vote! ", Declared in the evening on TF1, Philippe Juvin, mayor of La Garenne-Colombes and head of the emergency department at the European hospital Georges Pompidou. His remarks reflected the growing concern of health professionals confronted with the crisis.

Read also: Coronavirus: "We must realize that we are in a state of war"

For the president of the Centrists, Hervé Morin " keeping municipal teams for three more months is not dramatic ". " The priority is to no longer send contradictory messages to the French. The priority is the epidemic and the risk of considerable growth in the number of people infected. This is what is at stake, ”argues the president of the Normandy region on Europe 1, Sunday evening.

While going to vote, some voters had the feeling Sunday of defying the rules of confinement for a good cause but others were rebellious. This is the case of Anne-Cécile, voter of the 17th arrondissement in Paris. " I am ashamed, ashamed, ashamed for the hospitals of having to come and vote! Thousands of liters of hydroalcoholic gels are used in polling stations while there is a shortage everywhere in the health services , "protests the Parisian woman, whose cousin, at the head of a large health institute, notes a massive influx of patients.

Outside Alsace, I believe that the French do not yet understand what this health crisis means

In the Grand Est region, President Jean Rottner did not want to join the concert of the six other regional presidents who are pleading for a postponement of the elections. No time. Caught in the turmoil of an unprecedented crisis, the elected official considers this debate very " Parisian " in view of the emergencies with which he is confronted every hour. His observation froze the blood. “ You know , insists the man who is also an emergency doctor at the Mulhouse hospital, we have been in the eye of the storm since March 1. This is where we saw things happen. Outside of Alsace, I believe that the French do not yet understand what this health crisis means. It’s terrible. Young people who must be intubated urgently, elderly people swept away in a few hours, medical teams which reach full saturation after two weeks of mobilization, people in tears, national plans, fear for themselves and their loved ones … When you're inside, things are extremely complicated, ”says the first deputy mayor of Mulhouse.

Morale at half mast

His city went very early to reinforced stage 2, because of a contamination center estimated at 2000 people, via an evangelical church. From the first days of March, Jean Rottner had sent an SMS to Emmanuel Macron. He had alerted him to a situation that had become endemic. “ I told him that there was a distortion between what people heard from official public speaking and what was felt on the ground by caregivers. I insisted on the fact that it was not going to be manageable for a long time, ”he confides to Le Figaro on Sunday.

Strasbourg, meanwhile, woke up on Sunday under the sun but with a low morale. The closure of the border with Germany, announced in the middle of the afternoon (before knowing that border workers would not ultimately be affected), does not help to reassure voters. In the morning, however, we had limited the breakage with a participation, at 12 noon, of 16.93% in the Bas-Rhin and 14% in Strasbourg, 2% less than in 2014. “ As we do not know not what a normal score would have been, we will never know if the abstention will have played ”, loose Alain Fontanel, the head of list of LREM.

The bells of the two churches ring, but there is neither mass nor worship in the Alsatian capital. The coronavirus is the bane of all applicants. Of all the political class and in the first place of the president of the Republic who will have to end up deciding.