On the eve of the examination of the Les Républicains party's appeal on the now famous “Castaner circular”, the government has just found a new declared opponent on its way: the Socialist Party. For several days, management has not hidden its desire to quickly file an appeal. The subject was debated this Tuesday evening in the National Office.
It is now done, the PS will also be represented this Wednesday morning at the Council of State by its spokesperson Pierre Jouvet accompanied by Me Lyon-Caen, according to information from the Parisian.
The Castaner circular has been the subject of lively controversy for several days. The document, sent at the end of December to all the prefects, marks the end of the procedure of automatic shading (the attribution of political colors to the electoral lists engaged in the municipal ones) in all the cities of less than 9 000 inhabitants. However, it is from this labeling carried out by the prefectures that the results are then aggregated by the Ministry of the Interior to provide an illustration of the scores of the major political groups at the national level.
A circular deemed "irregular"
For the opposition parties, this decision could exclude from this national representation the results of 96% of the municipalities and the votes of almost half of the voters.
The sling has therefore just won the Socialist Party. His appeal, which we were able to consult, develops three angles of attack. The circular is first described as irregular, tainted with incompetence, "the Minister not being empowered to intervene to fix the threshold", and error of law, "the threshold used by the circular being greater than threshold provided for in the decree of December 9, 2014 ”, still in force, which sets the nuance threshold for municipalities with more than 1,000 inhabitants. An argument also accepted by the Republicans.
Second angle of attack, the advantage given to the majority party. The Castaner circular specifies that the LDVC label (center) is intended to be attributed "to the lists of candidates who, without being officially invested by LREM or the MoDem, or by the UDI, will be supported by these movements". Opposition parties see this as a desire by the executive to artificially inflate its scores in the big cities. The results of candidates invested by an opposition party but supported by En Marche could thus automatically inflate the scores of the majority. "Better still, the LDVC shade will be able to accommodate the score of the lists of candidates in dissent compared to one of the parties in the center," write the socialists.
" Abuse of power "
For the Socialists, by sending such a circular to the prefects, the government has finally been guilty of misuse of power, "the modifications made to the state of existing law having been made for political motives, in defiance of the essential neutrality to be demonstrated by the administration responsible for organizing the poll ”.
Newsletter - The essentials of the news
Every morning, the news seen by Le ParisienI'm registering
Your email address is collected by Le Parisien to allow you to receive our news and commercial offers. Find out more
Since the controversy was revived in mid-January, the government has struggled to calm the revolt. The association of mayors of France initially supported the circular. She finally changed her mind, claiming that she had always pleaded for a threshold of 3,500 inhabitants, and calling on the government to review her copy. On Wednesday, the Council of State will no doubt have more influence. One way or the other.
