Presidential 2022: why the government has changed hands on early voting

“This is called bullshit.

This proposal will be crushed, stillborn.

It will have lasted only 48 hours ”, anticipates, distressed, a relative of the Head of State.

The idea of ​​introducing “advance voting” in the 2022 presidential election sowed confusion even among the majority.

It was the subject of a government amendment, tabled on the sly Tuesday February 16.

“I discovered the existence of this amendment yesterday thanks to a little mouse in the Senate, slips a leading elected representative.

No one had been put in the loop.

The surprise is all the greater as the executive has so far opposed any change in voting methods, for departmental, regional and presidential elections.

On paper, the idea is to install a voting machine in each departmental capital so that voters far from home can cast their vote in the six days preceding the poll.

Objective: reduce abstention.

“In Portugal, more than 200,000 people have used this possibility, underlines the president of the LREM group in the Senate François Patriat.

We can think that in France 800,000 to one million people would be tempted by this option.

But the opposition denounces ulterior motives.

“We had proposed, until recently, the advance poll and the government has always told us no, strangles the PS Senator from Landes Eric Kerrouche.

And there, it falls from the sky ”.

"Show that they were not archaic"

So, why this change of foot?

"It is the fruit of an arbitration which was taken last week directly between the Prime Minister and the president, advance a macronist of weight.

They had said no to everything, especially on postal voting, so they wanted to send a signal to show that they were not archaic ”.

The ally MoDem himself had defended several modifications in vain.

To push its amendment, the executive wanted to take advantage of the examination under way in the Senate of the organic bill governing the organization of the next presidential election.

Except that this text is examined in accelerated procedure.

What prevents him from returning to the National Assembly.

In order for members to have the last word, this fast-track procedure should be abandoned.

“But the government does not seem to be in favor of this idea.

We are therefore going to trust the wisdom of the Senate, ”laughs a LREM parliamentarian.

"It could have worked if we had known how to sell it"

“It could have worked if we had known how to sell it, wear it.

We could have told the story, but there, going through the Senate… ”, squeaks a walker.

"Too bad we did not do any education upstream", adds a Secretary of State.

Behind the scenes, many macronists point to the attitude of the Ministry of the Interior, in charge of the elections: "Gérald Darmanin did not hasten to warn parliamentarians that an amendment was going to arrive," quipped an observer, convinced that the minister would not be unhappy if advance polling got bogged down ...

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Presidential 2022: Christophe Castaner defends advance voting

Especially since it has become a political symbol.

“They do not have time to introduce proportionality, but they have time to scheming an early vote, tweeted for his part Marine Le Pen.

For us, that's out of the question ”.

The senatorial right, which has the majority in the Senate, has already announced the color: it will vote against this initiative.

His boss, Bruno Retailleau, denounces attempts at “shenanigans” and “manipulations” intended to give a bonus to voters in large cities… who would vote Emmanuel Macron more than in the countryside.

In this context, the amendment is unlikely to be adopted.