This weekend, it's not just the kids who will have homework.
The 35,000 mayors of France received this Friday at the end of the afternoon an e-mail from their prefect inviting them to answer "yes or no" if they consider that the conditions recommended by the scientific committee seem met. to hold the regional and departmental elections on June 13 and 20, in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Emotion in the political class where the vast majority of parties, including LREM, but with the exception of the Modem, as well as the large associations of elected officials such as the Association of Mayors of France (AMF), have already expressed themselves in favor of the maintenance of elections.
If, at this stage, it is officially this scenario of maintenance which is favored by the government, the new consultation of the mayors is a “complementary element” which should allow the Prime Minister to “refine the position” that he will express this Tuesday during a debate on the subject in the National Assembly (and this Wednesday in the Senate), specifies Matignon.
This Monday, Gérald Darmanin will take up the mayors' copy and will immediately send a summary to the executive.
This Saturday evening, according to our information, the participation amounted to 28% in Côte-d'Or and 77% in the Alpes-Maritimes.
But why put a coin in the machine of unpredictability when at the beginning of the week the maintenance of the elections seemed to hold the cord?
“From the start, the president has hesitated on the date.
He does not want to fall back into the trap of March 2020. There is still a trauma of the municipal authorities that he had maintained under pressure from Edouard Philippe, ”slips a ministerial adviser.
Political, the controversy then moved to the judicial field with the opening of an investigation by the Court of Justice of the Republic.
According to an influential member of the government, it is the "very strong discrepancy between the position expressed Thursday by the AMF for the maintenance of the elections and the reverse feedback of the elected officials" which pushed the executive to launch the consultation of the mayors this Friday.
“We have the impression that the position of the AMF corresponds more to an instruction from LR than to an expression of their base.
The representatives of elected officials do too much national policy ”, attacks a member of the government, targeting the president (LR) of the AMF, François Baroin.
"We have a lot of feedback from mayors, from the right and from the left, who say that it is crazy madness to organize elections at the moment, abounds Thierry Solère, advisor to Emmanuel Macron.
It will be interesting to see if there is a gap between the mayors, who have just been elected and are therefore not in a political process, and what some people say… ”Atmosphere.
"This is not tampering ..." according to an adviser to the executive
As in echo, the association of rural mayors of France (AMRF) rejected this Saturday the recommendations of the scientific council.
Among these, the vaccination of members of polling stations or outdoor voting.
"Imposing such provisions on local elected officials is hardly compatible with the practice observed in rural municipalities, where it is sometimes complex to find a large number of assessors without mobilizing municipal staff", writes the association to the Prime Minister.
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"There is no particular will of the government to postpone the elections but everyone must understand that their holding is demanding and that the campaign as the electoral operations will be very strongly impacted by the sanitary rules", assures the minister of the 'Interior, Gérald Darmanin.
“There would be no electoral benefit for us if we postponed, insists an adviser to the executive.
It would be even more annoying to have a majority setback in October than in June.
The real reason is health and a fear of legal action.
This is not tampering ... "
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No political ulterior motive?
In a letter to the Prime Minister, the President of the National Assembly, Richard Ferrand, nevertheless wishes a postponement because the absence of an electoral campaign by June, due to the Covid, would "further increase what has been agreed to 'call the outgoing bonus'.
Understand the opponents of LREM.
“It is always legitimate for the state to take the advice of mayors.
But, in these circumstances, this opinion could not make the mayors responsible for a decision which is entirely that of the State ", reacted strongly to the AMF for whom" this hasty consultation, from Friday evening to Monday morning , does not (…) seem to be an appropriate method to deal with a question of this importance ”.
"It is astonishing among them this propensity to want to vote while, for their part, they postponed the renewal of their bodies for 18 months", squeals in return a minister.
"The government is giving itself an opportunity to justify a postponement decision that it does not want to assume", is convinced Marine Le Pen who thinks that the mayors should have been consulted "at least a week ago".
"Politics," she concludes, "is not a quiz or a
roundabout
!"
"
Methodology:
Ipsos / Sopra Steria survey, carried out for Le Parisien / Today in France and France Info among a sample of 1000 people registered on the electoral lists of Ile-de-France, constituting a representative sample of the inhabitants of Ile-de-France aged 18 and over, interviewed online from April 5 to 7, 2021.