"Quangangular. This seemingly a little barbaric term could well impose itself in the news on Sunday evening, once the results of the first round of the municipal elections are known. We use it to talk about cases where five lists remain in contention for the second round scheduled a week later.
In cities with more than 1,000 inhabitants, a candidate is qualified when he wins at least 10% of the vote. Generally, they are only three or four maximum in this case and we are left with triangular or quadrangular. In 2014, quangangulars had already occurred in sixteen municipalities, including Rouen, Albi or Villeneuve-sur-Lot (the former fiefdom of Jérôme Cahuzac).
Five qualified in some major cities
This number could be exceeded this year, with the scattering of the lists and that of the votes which could result. Even some large cities, such as Saint-Etienne and Montpellier, could be affected, if we are to believe the local voting intention polls published in the press.
The emergence of the En Marche !, party in 2016, notably reshuffled the game. The party of Emmanuel Macron appears for the first time in a municipal ballot. In the 250 municipalities in which the party has invested its own candidates, it acts as a major new political force, at least enough to hope to attract 10% of the vote. But the Socialists and Republicans, who run two to 35 of the 41 cities with more than 100,000 inhabitants (20 for the PS, 15 for LR), also have their own candidates in the hope of keeping these cities under their colors. Hence a multiplicity of applications. Not to mention the breakthrough of environmentalists, who dream of winning several cities as they did in 2014 in Grenoble and often prefer to stand apart in the first round.
"We are witnessing a burst of political offer linked to the fact that many candidates want to distance themselves from the major parties and tear apart partisan labels," comments Luc Rouban, political scientist at Cevipof. This tendency is also seen in the multitude of so-called “citizen” lists, which refuse any affiliation to a party.
Don't say "pentagular"
Even if five candidates are qualified, there is no guarantee that voters will find five ballots on the table in the second round, Sunday, March 22. Because some could seek to form alliances during the inter-tour, before the deadline set for Tuesday March 17 at 6 p.m. In Paris, for example, Agnès Buzyn said she was open to reaching an agreement with the lists of Republicans in certain districts. A small game in which also enter the lists having obtained between 5 and 10%, which can merge with another having exceeded the threshold of 10%.
If you really want to pass for an expert political scientist, don't use the (somewhat) nicer term "pentagular". "It's a mistake," explained linguist Alain Rey to the Parisian in 2014, concerning this "hybrid compound word", a mixture of Greek and Latin. However to speak in good French, you must prefer the 100% Latin "quinquangulaire".
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