For the sake of “democracy”, the president of the MoDem, François Bayrou, proposed Thursday that mayors organize themselves into a “reserve of available signatures” to sponsor presidential candidates.
The president of the MoDem, François Bayrou, proposed Thursday that mayors organize themselves into a “reserve of available signatures” to sponsor presidential candidates deemed “legitimate”, without partisan support but for the sake of “democracy”.
“I propose that a certain number of mayors decide that they are going to participate in a reserve of signatures available in the event that the signatures of the + legitimate + candidates are missing”, developed the centrist leader to AFP.
Read also:500 sponsorships of elected officials for the presidential election: a French exception
According to him, “the representatives of the main currents who participated in the presidential election under the Fifth Republic” should be guaranteed to have their sponsorship, targeting candidates supported by PCF, the PS, ecologists, the center, the republican right or the extreme right.
“And then there are the emerging candidates, those who have imposed themselves through political debate and who have reached the 10% mark in the polls”, and who must also be considered legitimate and therefore able to compete, adds François Bayrou . “Otherwise, it would cause a crisis and the voters would feel that the election was being stolen from them,” he said.
The proposal of the High Commissioner for Planning targets in particular Eric Zemmour, Marine Le Pen and Jean-Luc Mélenchon, whose campaign teams report difficulties in collecting the 500 signatures of mayors necessary for the presentation of a candidacy for the election. presidential.
However, according to Mr. Bayrou, “when you give your signature to one, you are suspected of wanting to influence the outcome of the election by multiplying the number of starters”, while “it is about honest democratic feeling that citizens experience and who can be harmed by these events”.
With its proposal for signature reserves, the mayors “would undertake to give their sponsorship if the situation required it”, not as “support, but a civic approach on the part of elected officials who, concerned about democracy, would not want not necessarily engage”.
“We could do that with the Association of Rural Mayors, less politicized than the Association of Mayors of France”, further suggested the one who was a candidate in the presidential elections of 2002, 2007 and 2012.
Could the mayor of Pau be part of such a reserve? “Why not”, answers François Bayrou, arguing that “his choice for (him) is rather Emmanuel Macron”.
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