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Postponement of the second round of municipal elections: deputies and senators soon in the hemicycle?

2020-03-16T18:31:40.022Z


While containment measures could become widespread, Parliament must give the executive the green light to postpone the second round of


The question was pending this Monday morning, the answer fell in the middle of the afternoon: the second round of the municipal elections will be postponed until June 21. All parties, both majority and opposition, are in favor of this postponement and this date. The discussions focused on the results of the first round: if all the formations are favorable to the sanctuarization of the already elected mayors (around 30,000 out of some 35,000 in total) some consider that for the others, the first round should be "replayed" . But, unless there is a huge surprise, we are headed for total sanctuarization in the first round.

Another question then arises: how will the Parliament, the National Assembly and the Senate, whose agreement is necessary to record the postponement of the elections, be able to decide while the containment measures, still partial today, could generalize? As we revealed this morning, Gérard Larcher, the President of the Senate, wanted legislative work to resume. Richard Ferrand, his counterpart in the National Assembly, shares the same position.

Three laws

Deputies and senators should therefore be called to the rescue before the end of the week - or at the beginning of next week at the latest - to give the executive the green light to postpone the second round of the elections. If a simple decree is enough to cancel the convocation of voters initially planned for next Sunday, several texts require the approval of the legislative power. "We need indeed a law to record the postponement of the elections, another, to note again the campaign accounts and finally a third to manage the problem of intermunicipal associations some of whose mayors are not yet elected", explains Patrick Kanner, the president of the socialists in the Senate.

Another area where a law is necessary: ​​economic and social support for the crisis. "We need an enabling law for economic emergency measures and especially those that require the guarantee of state loans," confirms Damien Abad, president of the LR group in the National Assembly.

The approval of the Constitutional Council

It remains to be determined how? In the Senate, a unique procedure allows the texts to be voted on without displacing the 348 senators. "We have what is called a public poll," recalls Patrick Kanner. Concretely, it allows a single senator to vote for all of his group colleagues by voting delegations. The Senate can meet with the group presidents alone and pass a law. Problem: such a procedure does not exist in the National Assembly. Only proxy voting exists due to one proxy per Member. However, there was no question, of course, of bringing some 290 deputies into the Chamber.

Richard Ferrand must meet Tuesday morning at 10 am the Conference of Presidents - including all group presidents - to consider solutions. "We have to imagine an exceptional limited format," they say in the entourage of the President of the Assembly. Richard Ferrand could, for example, exceptionally, set up a "public ballot" on the Senate model.

This whole parliamentary machine also and above all requires the approval of the Constitutional Council. In addition, if the postponement to June 21 were approved, "the senatorial elections could well be held on the dates scheduled for next September," said one in the Senate.

Source: leparis

All news articles on 2020-03-16

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