Regional: the Debré report proposes a postponement from March to June 2021

Change the electoral calendar to allow the conduct of a field campaign.

Due to the Covid-19 epidemic, the former president of the Constitutional Council, Jean-Louis Debré, announces in

propose this solution in his report submitted to the Prime Minister on Friday.

Scheduled for next March, the regional and departmental elections would be postponed to June, he suggests to the executive, anxious not to relive the dark scenario of the last municipal elections - an uncertain first round, a second round postponed for three months, against a background of record abstention.

Read also: Regional elections: in favor of postponement, the opposition remains suspicious

LE FIGARO.

- After having met nearly 70 personalities within the framework of your mission, devoted to the postponement of the March polls, what subject has consensus within the political class?

Jean-Louis DEBRÉ.

-

For all the people I interviewed, without exception, democracy is based on respecting electoral deadlines and they should only be touched with great care.

I told them that I had a double imperative: the democratic requirement but also the health requirement.

The elections should not be the pretext for slackening off in the fight against Covid.

The problem is not that of the polls, since we know how to hold them, but that of the electoral campaign.

However, there is no free ballot if each candidate does not have the opportunity to speak.

This double requirement and this need for balance mean that there is a quasi-consensus on the decision of a possible postponement.

Concerning the choice of this postponement, the agreement is very broad for the postponement of the elections to the end of June 2021, instead of March 2021. This choice is supported by the representatives of the scientific community.

I heard the professionals of the scientific council but I went well beyond, by calling directly a certain number of immunologists.

Read also: Regional: Macron entrusts Debré with consulting the parties to study a postponement of the poll

What did they tell you?

In the current state of their knowledge, it seems that spring lends itself more easily to an electoral campaign operation than the winter periods, when the virus circulates more easily.

As a former president of the Constitutional Council and politician, are you in favor of this postponement to June?

Yes.

My advice is to say that June is the right date because, as it stands, any other date is not acceptable.

Postponing the ballots after the presidential election, as some seem to want, is to go beyond the jurisprudence of the Constitutional Council saying that an election postponement can be organized within

.

However, after 2022, this is no longer a reasonable time.

Second, if the elections were postponed to that date, there would be confusion in the campaign accounts of departmental and regional candidates with the campaign accounts of presidential candidates.

It would be absolutely total confusion.

Finally, we would be witnessing a totally useless political debate between the thoughts and ulterior motives of each other.

At a time when our fellow citizens have other concerns, are worried about their jobs and their health, can the political world take the risk of giving a dramatic image of divisions over the voting system?

This is why I am excluding 2022.

Was the end of summer 2021 also mentioned as a hypothesis?

For this other date referring to the fall, in September or October, as a former participant in electoral campaigns, I do not know how it is possible to campaign when the French are on vacation in August.

In addition, doctors warn me about the autumn periods, always conducive to restarting the epidemic.

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According to the government, the advice of the scientific council will be decisive in deciding on a possible postponement which would be necessary beyond June.

What do you say on this point?

I am totally opposed to automatic review clauses and I am simply saying one thing: the scientific council will have to submit a report directly to parliamentarians on the situation in April-May.

Parliament will then assume its responsibilities.

What do you think is the timeline for a final decision?

I answer them at the start of my report.

The government will have to announce the date on which it wishes to summon voters in the first days of December.

Second, before December 15, he must urgently table a bill in Parliament to allow a vote on the postponement.