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Presidential: 5 minutes to understand the system for obtaining sponsorships

2021-12-01T14:48:11.798Z


It is the hidden face of the presidential election. Months before the first round of voting, candidate campaign teams lead u


It is in the shadow of meetings, debates and shock proposals in the media, by phone or in person, that the discreet but no less essential step of obtaining sponsorship is played out.

Five months before the first round of the 2022 presidential election, campaign teams are working to obtain the 500 signatures of parliamentarians and local elected officials necessary to be able to claim the supreme office.

And for many candidates, like Jean-Luc Mélenchon, Marine Le Pen or Éric Zemmour, this quest is not a formality.

How it works ?

The sponsorship rule first appeared in 1962 when direct universal suffrage was introduced in the presidential election. Any adult citizen must then obtain the support of a hundred elected officials to apply for the presidency of the Republic. "But to avoid the multiplication of candidatures and the appearance of fanciful candidates, the number of signatures required was raised to 500 from 1976," explains political historian Christian Delporte.

Nearly 47,000 elected officials (deputies, senators, regional and departmental elected officials, etc.), including around 35,000 mayors, can give their support to one (and only one) candidate. Officially, it is the elected officials who present, on their own initiative, the candidate they wish to see participate in the ballot. But in fact, they are most often directly solicited by the candidate's campaign teams, who negotiate to obtain a sponsorship promise.

In order to be validated by the Constitutional Council, the signatures must come from 30 different departments, and the same department cannot provide more than 10% of its sponsorships.

The sponsorship collection period begins at the latest ten weeks before the first round of the ballot, ie on January 30, and ends one month later.

"At least eight days before the first round of the ballot, the Constitutional Council makes public the name and the quality of the citizens who validly proposed the candidates", specifies the law which frames it.

How do the candidates go about it?

"If the traditional parties, such as the Socialist Party (PS) or Les Républicains (LR), generally have no difficulty in obtaining sponsorship, thanks to their network of local elected representatives, the task is more difficult. for the others, remarks Christian Delporte.

When a simple call can suffice at LR, on the side of Eric Zemmour's campaign teams for example, convincing requires time, insistence and investment.

"

A criterion well taken into account by the polemicist and now officially a candidate, who says he has collected between 250 and 350 signatures for the moment (unverifiable figures) and has, according to his teams, recruited no less than 600 "ambassadors" responsible for going target potential supporters, including professionals.

Read also Eric Zemmour presidential candidate: and now, the sponsorship wall

On the side of the National Gathering and Marine Le Pen, where it is accepted to "row" to obtain them, it is the local elected officials who are responsible for canvassing the mayors.

"This is an integral part of the presidential race, many people devote most of their time to negotiating this support within campaign teams," notes Christian Delporte.

Why is the sponsorship system arousing criticism?

Parties like La France Insoumise (LFI) or the RN, like to criticize the system for obtaining sponsorship, which they consider too favorable to more established parties, like LR or the PS.

"It is a classic posture within the formations which adopt a position of rupture, it allows them to overplay the idea that the system is opposed to the minority parties, even though they already have a solid base of support. and local elected officials, ”Judge Christian Delporte, for whom this difficulty is mainly the concern of candidates from civil society.

To read also Norbert Chetail, the "mercenary" of sponsorship for the presidential election

However, "the public nature of sponsorship" effectively represents "an obstacle" for the most extreme parties, admits the historian.

It is also for Marine Le Pen an "obstacle" to the proper functioning of "our democracy".

"For some elected officials, being displayed as supporting Zemmour or Le Pen can be embarrassing, especially since not all of them officially have a political label," explains Christian Delporte.

At the margins, this system is also criticized for running the risk that some elected officials will haggle over their support, and that others are under too much pressure, whether to support a candidate or on the contrary not to help him.

What alternatives?

Several reforms of the system have been proposed, without success, to modify access to the presidential election.

Among them were put forward the proposal to establish the secrecy of sponsorships, to raise the threshold for signatures to further limit the appearance of fanciful candidacies, to set up a college of 100,000 elected officials responsible for appointing, by secret ballot , the candidate that they wish to see compete, to set up citizen sponsorship with a threshold of 150,000 supporters, to mix sponsorship of citizens and elected officials… Alternatives which do not appear to be simpler than the traditional system.

Source: leparis

All news articles on 2021-12-01

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