It has banned public meetings, outlaws walkabouts and keeps voters away from the polling station.
For the past year, the Covid-19 epidemic has vampirized political life.
Elected officials had to learn to live with a virus that chased away other concerns.
French people fled the ballot boxes for fear of contamination.
Parliament is slowing down.
Read also: Regional and departmental elections: everything you need to know before voting in June
As for the candidates, they remain dependent on the arbitrations of the executive, which must decide by Thursday on a new postponement or on maintaining the regional and departmental elections scheduled for June 13 and 20.
From the second round of municipal elections shifted to the procrastination of the government on the fate of regional,
Le Figaro
returns in four moments to the last twelve months of a democracy at half mast, suspended from the trajectory of epidemic curves.
March 2020 - Fear about the election, Macron decrees confinement in full municipal
It is a little after 8 p.m. on Monday March 16, 2020, when Emmanuel Macron announces the confinement of the population.
The
declared
"war"
on the virus involves an unprecedented decision: the postponement of the second round of municipal elections.
The day before, nearly 21 million French people went to the polling stations, hydroalcoholic gel at the entrance and a distance of one meter between voters.
But fear prevails: a majority of registered voters (55.34%) do not go to the polls.
A gloved assessor oversees voting operations in Lyon (Rhône), March 15, 2020. JEFF PACHOUD / AFP
A few hours before the opening of the polls, part of the political class pushed for a postponement.
Beginning of controversy: the leaders of the opposition parties deny having been consulted beforehand by the executive on the maintenance of the first round.
As of the presidential address, the candidates suspend their campaign.
In 30,000 municipalities, municipal councilors already elected will have to wait two months before taking over town halls.
May - Deconfined France returns to a campaign under constraints
Public meetings prevented, handshakes banned ... After two months of house arrest, deconfined France returns to the end of May with a campaign under constraints, in view of the second round scheduled for June 28.
In the streets, protective masks are gradually covering faces.
Neck to neck is no longer just a positioning of candidates in the polls;
it becomes a way of greeting the voter.
Masked, the LREM candidate Agnès Buzyn in the campaign on June 21, 2020, in Paris.
Stefano RELLANDINI / AFP
Favorite hauling places in small towns, the markets are now deserted by some contenders.
"This time, I will not campaign there,"
slips an outgoing mayor.
On social networks, videos, tweets and "retweets" are essential as an attempt to mobilize voters.
To stick to the new concerns, candidates are retouching their programs, placing more emphasis on health and
“economic urgency”
.
June - Voters desert the ballot boxes, new elected officials sucked in by the crisis
The harangues of political leaders were not enough.
Under a state of health emergency, on June 28, more than half of French people called to the polls (58.14%) deserted the voting booths.
This is the lowest participation ever recorded in municipal elections, note specialists of the Fifth Republic.
Nearly one in two non-voters (43%) feared contamination in the polling station, note the Ipsos-Sopra Steria pollsters.
A voter in front of a polling station in Nice (Alpes-Maritimes), June 28, 2021. VALERY HACHE / AFP
In large cities, from Nice to Paris, outgoing mayors on the front line against the epidemic are re-elected without a hitch.
Elsewhere, as in Marseille, Lyon, Bordeaux and Strasbourg, environmentalists are obtaining historic victories.
But the new elected officials see the health crisis swallow up the start of their mandate.
November - The regions in turn pushed back, the uncertainty has not been lifted
The “second wave” in turn disrupts the electoral calendar, with the approach of regional and departmental elections scheduled for March.
The head of state is worried, in private, about the sincerity of a poll whose campaign would be made impossible by the health situation.
During the second lockdown, in November, political leaders agree on a postponement from March to June.
Read also: Regional and departmental elections: the puzzle of the campaign in the time of the Covid
Delayed, the campaign initially planned gives way to a winter of restrictions.
The "third wave" catches up with the executive.
In
Le Figaro
, regional presidents urge the government to keep the regional ones on the scheduled date.
On March 29, the scientific council for its part defers to the decision of the Prime Minister.
A few days earlier, two partial legislative elections, scheduled for April in Pas-de-Calais and Paris, were postponed.
In the political class, voices are concerned about the distended link between citizens and elected officials.
Of unease in democracy.