Editorial of the “World”. The validation by the Constitutional Council, Monday, March 7, of twelve candidacies for the presidential election of April 10 and 24 comes to close a psychodrama of several weeks around sponsorships. Until recent days, two contenders relatively well placed in the polls of voting intentions, Marine Le Pen and Eric Zemmour, expressed the fear of not obtaining the 500 signatures of elected officials necessary to validate their presence during this election. .
A third major candidate, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, also reported major difficulties while 42,000 elected officials (deputies, senators, mayors, presidents of communities of municipalities, departmental and regional councilors, etc.) are authorized to make “presentations”.
In the end, none of these three candidates was prevented: Marine Le Pen collected 622 sponsorships, Eric Zemmour 741, Jean-Luc Mélenchon 906. The “small” contenders have nothing to complain about either. Apart from Christiane Taubira, who started too late in the race, and François Asselineau, too weakly supported, all managed to be dubbed. Credited in 2017 with 1.21% of the votes cast, the Béarnais Jean Lassalle obtained 642 signatures. Narrowly drafted, Philippe Poutou, the representative of the New Anti-Capitalist Party (1.09% of the vote five years ago), will be able to continue to compete with his rival from Lutte Ouvrière, Nathalie Arthaud (0.64% of the vote).
A system designated as unfair
The relatively comfortable number of signatures obtained by the most offensive plaintiffs casts, a posteriori, doubt on the sincerity of their cries. Especially since with each presidential campaign the scenario repeats itself: the most radical candidates sound the charge, cry out for the denial of democracy, play the victim and end up obtaining their signatures by having in the process mobilized their supporters against a system of representation labeled as unjust.
This time, however, the alert seemed so serious that several elected officials, at odds with their convictions, mobilized to help them. fearful “a democratic accident”, the president of the MoDem, François Bayrou, has opened a kind of sponsorship bank to help candidates in difficulty. defending the « democratic pluralism”the president (Les Républicains) of the Association of Mayors of France, David Lisnard, announced that he gave his signature to Jean-Luc Mélenchon.
If one of the candidates with a large number of voting intentions could not stand for lack of sufficient signatures, the whole legitimacy of the next presidential election was in danger of being called into question. The excluded would have challenged the result in advance and representative democracy would have been once again indicted.
Overcome blockages
Inherited from the time when the President of the Republic was elected by indirect suffrage by a college of elected officials, the terms of sponsorship have had their day. The more the system of major parties collapses, the more the choice of entrusting only the elected with the pre-selection of candidates comes into conflict with the very principles of direct universal suffrage.
In 2012, the Jospin commission had recommended entrusting sponsorships to citizens alone. Less radical, the President of the Senate, Gérard Larcher, suggests a mixed formula combining citizens and elected officials. Making suggestions is no longer enough. We must overcome the blockages and take action from the start of the next five-year term. Otherwise, the presidential candidates of 2027 risk becoming the victims of this too long procrastination.