Municipal: wild posting, a common practice ... but illegal

Christophe Najdovski did not digest to hear Rachida Dati want a "clean Paris". "It starts by avoiding dirtying it with the wild posting of your candidates", tackled it this Monday morning on Twitter the assistant to the town hall of Paris in charge of Transport, photos to support. These show posters of the candidates The Republicans in the 12th and 13th arrondissement, pasted on construction barriers or on street furniture in the capital.

. @ datirachida A clean Paris that starts by avoiding to dirty it with the wild posting of your candidates. Examples in the 12th and 13th. https://t.co/qX2CSHGOBx pic.twitter.com/5oxEShgKzx

Sunday evening, it was the environmental candidate David Belliard who was criticized for posters showing his face on posts in the Parisian district of Belleville.

Our neighborhood is already one of the most contaminated in Paris and you @David_Belliard saturate the posts on rue Oberkampf with stickers bearing your image. You are the only one to do so. No respect for the habitats of our neighborhood and the cleaning agents pic.twitter.com/3db6lsThRb

An old tradition… very framed

Placing posters in the middle of the street during a campaign is nothing new. At each poll, walls or poles, especially in the biggest cities, find themselves one morning covered with photos calling to vote for such or such candidate.

Such a practice is however completely prohibited by the Electoral Code. The posting is only authorized on the special and reserved sites that each municipality must set up. "During the six months preceding the first day of the month of an election", that is since September 1, "any display relating to the election is prohibited outside this location as well as outside the display panels of free expression where it exists ”, stipulates article L51. A rule recalled in a circular from the Ministry of the Interior dated last January 16 and addressed to all mayors. "Apart from the special places reserved for the affixing of electoral posters and billboards of free expression, any posting, including commercial, relating to the election is prohibited", one reads in this document addressed to 36 000 city officials in France.

A candidate risks 9,000 euros if he does not respect these rules, according to article L90 of the electoral code. But it must in particular prove that he or his activists are responsible for this wild display. Contacted, the entourage of David Belliard also denies having given instructions to put such posters on posts in Paris. “There is not much that can be done, the procedures are often long. Sometimes it is the cross and the banner. In addition in the case of election posters, things are temporary, so there is no point in reporting them to the authorities, "also said in 2017 Eric Huftier, one of the vice-presidents of the association Paysages de France, on France Info.

Some cities are upwind

In fact, everything depends on the action of the municipalities. In Paris, the City recognized in 2017 to show a certain “tolerance”. Others, like Toulouse, have decided to systematically charge each poster taken off by the municipal services to the candidate concerned. The Pink City charges 12 euros per poster. For the 2017 presidential election, the slate had reached 16,000 euros in total, including nearly 10,000 euros for Philippe Poutou alone. The NPA candidate had filed appeals, questioning the too small number of reserved panels. "It will be necessary to prove that it is indeed NPA activists who have pasted these posters," also defended the local leader of the party, quoted by France 3.

In 2017, several senators had also tabled a bill to more easily authorize an elected official to “make the automatic removal of posters” and so that “the cost of cleaning [be] charged to the reimbursement of expenses of electoral propaganda ".

Cars and bikes in Lyon

Some candidates "appear" on means of transport. Thus in Lyon, the environmental candidate, Benjamin Badouard, published Friday on Twitter a photo of a car in the colors of Gérard Collomb, LREM candidate for the presidency of the metropolis, and another of a bicycle towing a trailer making its own promotion.

The election campaign according to environmentalists 🚲🚲🚲🚲 ... and according to #Collomb 🚗🚗🚗🚗

In town, personally I use a bicycle: good for health, faster, takes up little space, soothing ...

And it is not an electric that will catch up with the symbol ... 👎 # Municipales2020 pic.twitter.com/yIxom3n0nI

But is it legal? Some also see a breach of the Electoral Code. "I do not see why it would not be considered as wild posting in the strict sense of article 51, but there is no case law", underlines Romain Rambaud, professor of public law at the University of Grenoble -Alps and specialist in the electoral code. “We have the same problem for the kakemonos (note: small transportable sign) , the banners, and the stands. It should be clearer, ”he adds.

I feel that Gérard Collomb will hate me, but I assume.
Dura lex sed lex.
"How Gérard Collomb's campaign team in Lyon violates the electoral code in the eyes of everyone" by Pierre Col https://t.co/jt5uR2sInf#Municipales2020 #Lyon #GerardCollomb #codeelectoral #loi #infraction

Speaker yes, window no

Overseas, some cars are also fitted with a loudspeaker on the roof to broadcast messages. What is a practice "admitted" by the electoral judge "since it has not continued after the close of the electoral campaign and it has not been established that it has exceeded the limits of propaganda electoral ”, ruled the Constitutional Council in 2012.

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On the other hand, putting up a poster at the window of your home or business is clearly prohibited. Because "this provision is not limited in its field of application to the public domain and also relates to the posting on the private domain", indicated in 2015 the Ministry of the Interior, in response to Senator Jean-Louis Masson. Place Beauvau was based on a decision of the Council of State in 2002, which declared contrary to the Electoral Code "the presence of posters and a banner affixed in front of the electoral office" of a candidate.

Private boxes and associations also benefit

Wild posting isn't just about political activists. During the 2014 municipal election campaign, for example, election posters were covered overnight with posters promoting Europe 1. The radio's communications director admitted that he had run "a wild poster campaign Saying he was aware that "it is illegal even if there is a margin of tolerance".

Associations, like some anti-abortion, also lead (and assume) wild poster campaigns, especially in Paris. In September, anti-feminicide activists were fined 400 euros.