Election campaign requires, the metal panels intended to display the official posters of the candidates are out.
Since March 28, the official launch date of the campaign, a private display company, France Display Plus, has been commissioned by the 12 presidential candidates to criss-cross France to cover these panels.
About 900,000 posters in total, distributed among 600 employees requisitioned for the occasion.
But three days before the first round of voting, several municipalities deplore panels that are still empty, or unevenly filled.
Enough to fuel criticism of the management of the collage, which many mayors consider imperfect, but which France Display Plus strongly defends.
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Shortcomings but a company that defends itself
The account is not there.
This is what several mayors from all over France are saying, from Etang-la-Ville in Ile-de-France to Gelos, in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques.
They deplore the panels that are still empty three days before the first round, arousing annoyance among elected officials and questioning among residents.
"
This challenges, several residents come to ask us the reasons for these shortcomings
", confides Daniel Cornalba, mayor of Etang-la-ville, whose panels displayed in front of the town hall only present the posters of Marine Le Pen and Eric Zemmour.
In the Pyrénées-Atlantiques, some signs still remain blank, even in the city center.
“
There are gaps, the panels in front of the town hall, for example, are not displayed
“, notes the town hall of Gelos.
Richard Delepierre, mayor of Chesnay-Rocquencourt in the Yvelines, deplores a lack of professionalism from the service provider.
“
Wednesday noon, no poster was stuck.
At present, 4 out of 18 panels are still not.
It is unacceptable
”.
If we didn't do our job well, candidates wouldn't come to us.
Aurélien Sallé, in charge of development and digital at France Displays.
France Display Plus, an SME launched in 2015, is indeed mandated by the candidates to stick their official campaign posters throughout the territory.
A large-scale mission that takes place over 12 days.
The company strongly condemns these criticisms, ensuring that it has already meshed approximately 97% of the territory to date, and that almost half was covered only three days after the start of the official campaign.
“
Of course, it is difficult to satisfy everyone, we cannot deploy 36,000 people for all the municipalities of France.
We try to do our job in a transparent and professional way
, ”says Aurélien Sallé, in charge of development and digital at France Displays.
The latter also deplores organizational and logistical problems for which France Displays is not responsible: “
Sometimes we are given the wrong addresses, or panels that have not yet been installed
”.
For this election, the company is also responsible for making only one pass.
The slightest torn or removed poster can therefore suggest that the company has not passed.
However, Aurélien Sallé wants to be pragmatic: “
If we didn't do our job well, the candidates wouldn't call on us
”.
Imbalances
These shortcomings can cause an imbalance in the information, where only certain teams have the militant capacities to compensate for these shortcomings.
“
If France Display does not pass quickly, it is the local teams who deploy their poster.
But some candidates do not have a local team,
” adds Richard Delepierre.
This is why at Etang-la-Ville or Chesnay-Rocquencourt, some panels display only two or three candidates, leaving the rest of the contenders for the Elysée on the floor.
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Mayors are annoyed and do not consider the time constraint as a valid argument given the stakes of this election.
"
Even though they have the right to pass until tomorrow evening, there is still an interest in passing as quickly as possible, that of discovering a candidate and forming an opinion
", reports the mayor of the Etang -the city.