Lhe Constitutional Council published on Tuesday 1er February, the first salvo of sponsorships received and validated. With 105 sponsorships already received, i.e. a fifth of the necessary quota, Emmanuel Macron is for the moment well ahead of the race for signatures. Anne Hidalgo, who has widely relayed on Twitter in recent days the photos of elected officials giving her their sponsorship, has already gathered 48 of them. Follow the candidate Les Républicains, Valérie Pécresse (34), and the communist Fabien Roussel (30). The other candidates, from Yannick Jadot to Éric Zemmour, have for the moment, at best, only about fifteen sponsorships.
In total, more than 313 sponsorships have already been received and validated by the Elders for this first draft. Elected officials can present the candidate of their choice, even if the latter has not expressed his wish to enter the battle for the Élysée. In 2017, François Hollande, who was not a candidate for re-election, had thus received 7 sponsorships. Defeated in the primary of the right, Alain Juppé had all the same been sponsored by 313 elected officials, in full turmoil for the candidate François Fillon, who had gathered a record of 3,635 signatures.
READ ALSOPresidential: how does the sponsorship of candidates work?
The candidates have until March 4 at 6 p.m. to gather at least 500 elected representatives, otherwise they will not be able to stand in the presidential election, scheduled for April 10 and 24. The names of the elected officials who send their sponsorship are now public, which cools certain enthusiasms, and complicates the traditional collection of candidates launched several months ago. By March 18, the Constitutional Council will draw up the final list of candidates, who will begin the home stretch before the election.