François Bayrou, a close ally of outgoing President Emmanuel Macron, will grant his presidential sponsorship to Marine Le Pen, in the name of democracy, he announced Sunday to the Grand Jury RTL-LCI-“Le Figaro”. The president of the Modem is at the origin of an initiative of “sponsorship bank” bringing together, according to him, nearly 400 elected officials.
The president of the MoDem François Bayrou, a close ally of outgoing President Emmanuel Macron, will grant his presidential sponsorship to Marine Le Pen, in the name of democracy, he announced Sunday to the Grand Jury RTL-LCI-Le Figaro. “I cannot defend in front of my fellow citizens of all opinions the idea that the President of the French Republic would be elected in an election from which the main candidates would be excluded”, explained François Bayrou, who is at the origin of a initiative of “sponsorship bank” bringing together, according to him, nearly 400 elected officials.
“Save Democracy”
“It’s to save democracy, but our signature is not worth support,” he insisted. “I have decided to take my share of this charge and – this does not exactly correspond to the dream that I have of political commitment – I will give my signature to Mrs. Le Pen”, he revealed. 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. 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.