Will there be elections in March? A suspicion has been haunting the quiet corridors of the small French political world for several weeks now: what if, at a time when the epidemic situation only produces uncertainties, the government chooses to postpone the departmental and regional elections? Scandal, democratic manipulation are already offended by some, without knowing yet.
This Thursday, the Prime Minister lifted part of the veil shrouding the uncertain future of the poll. “What the President of the Republic asked me is that we act with method, transparency and impartiality,” began the host of Matignon. He confirmed the creation of a “working group in which all the parties would appoint a representative” and which should, headed by “an indisputable personality” and based on the work of the scientific council, decide whether or not to hold the meeting. March vote. Let us translate: nobody could thus accuse the government of “manipulation”, of political calculation or worse, of inconsistency, as had been sometimes the case with the municipal ones.
Some have simply brushed aside the subject with the back of their hands. Thus Laurent Wauquiez (LR) in Auvergne Rhône Alpes – “We, today, we have only one obsession, to do the maximum to protect populations, to act for health and employment”, let his entourage know – or Carole Delga (PS) in Occitanie: “I would especially like to see a commission created on how the recovery plan will be territorialized, on public investments in Occitanie, a commission to work on the possibility of providing more resources to our caregivers, shopkeepers, culture, sports and events actors who are strongly impacted. It would therefore be indecent to ask the question.
“There will be no consensus”
Others, on the other hand, have shown their reluctance to delay the ballot. “Democracy, it should not be handled, touched, with infinite precautions”, warned on RTL the patroness (DVD) of Ile-de-France, Valérie Pécresse. Not a fan of the idea of a postponement, therefore, even if she specified that a re-containment would “obviously” prevent any vote. “I think we should leave them in March,” said Renaud Muselier, president (LR) of the South region. “We cannot shift democracy because we would have had a lack of adaptation. There was summer to prepare, ”said Julien Bayou, boss of environmentalists and candidate in Ile-de-France, asking the government to do everything so that the vote can be held depending on sanitary conditions.
“There will be no consensus, so it’s fucked up their commission,” observes, mockingly, an elected LR. At most, some evoke a postponement to June, but not beyond. If there are less stakes for the departmental, the regional represent for many a warm-up lap before the presidential election. To shift them is to put oneself in danger. Several LR presidents – Pécresse, Bertrand – are counting on it to build momentum. “Since he will not do any good results, Macron also has an interest in them passing as discreetly as possible,” observes an RN executive. Understand: if LREM records a new debacle, it is better to take it in March than in December, five months before the presidential election. The president does not want to be told that “it smells of fir”.
Original article by : www.leparisien.fr