The president of the MoDem, François Bayrou, indicated on Friday that his initiative of a “sponsorship bank” had garnered the support of 365 signatories, a reserve a priori sufficient to guarantee Marine Le Pen and Eric Zemmour, struggling in their harvest of initials, that they compete in the presidential election.
“We reached 365 signatures, which is remarkable, because it shows that there is a democratic need in France: when we propose precise and concrete answers, then the mayors, the elected officials, as citizens, respond and commit”, considered François Bayrou.
“It will be a decision of each of the signatories, personally, but such a number should allow several of the candidates concerned to reach the 500 mark”, he added.
Distribute sponsorships
The boss of the centrist party must hold a meeting this Friday at the end of the afternoon with the signatories – around 300 mayors, as well as parliamentarians and departmental and regional advisers – to proceed with the distribution of their sponsorships, in “an approach absolutely civic where each elected official assumes his responsibilities”.
Candidates for the presidential election have until March 4 to justify 500 sponsorships.
According to the latest count from the Constitutional Council published on Thursday, Marine Le Pen and Eric Zemmour are missing at least between 80 and 90, while Jean-Luc Mélenchon, struggling for a while, finally collected the necessary number of signatures.
Other beneficiary candidates
Initially planned by François Bayrou to “save” the candidates considered legitimate, that is to say credited with at least 10% in the voting intentions, the mechanism could benefit other candidates – Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, François Asselineau, Philippe Poutou or Christiane Taubira are in particular in difficulty – at the discretion of the signatories, given their large number.