Regional: can we postpone an election twice without violating the Constitution?

THE QUESTION.

It was a hypothesis feared by the oppositions: a new postponement of regional and departmental elections, already postponed from March to June due to the Covid-19 epidemic.

Prime Minister Jean Castex ruled out this scenario on Monday and will defend in Parliament on Tuesday the maintenance of the poll on June 13 and 20.

But votes, including the majority, are calling for a second postponement of the vote after the summer to allow the campaign to unfold.

Can we postpone elections twice without violating the Constitution?

Read also: Faced with the outcry, the executive maintains the date of the regional elections

THE CHEKING PROCESS.

The question divides legal experts.

For some, the reason for the general interest in the face of the Covid-19 epidemic could justify a new postponement of the ballot in the fall;

for others, the conditions could not be met in the eyes of the Sages of the Constitutional Council, that the President of the Senate, Gérard Larcher, had promised to seize in the event of a new delay.

Read also: Regional and departmental elections: everything you need to know before voting in June

In their archives of the Fifth Republic, jurists note only

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