The legislative elections will take place on June 12 and 19, 2022 and the French are called to the polls to elect the 577 deputies who make up the National Assembly. Let’s see together who are, already, the candidates for the legislative elections.
On June 12 and 19, 2022, the French will once again be called to go to their polling station, for the legislative elections. The ballot allows the 577 deputies who sit in the National Assembly to be renewed, including 11 French deputies established outside France.
Who is already a candidate in the legislative elections?
Even if the result of the presidential election will have an impact on the candidates or not in the legislative elections, certain personalities are already candidates in a constituency. First, among the candidates present in the second round of the presidential election. In Marine Le Pen’s camp, we prefer to proceed in stages and remain cautious, depending on the result of the presidential election. The performance of the MP for Pas-de-Calais in the April elections will determine the strategy to be adopted in June. The National Rally is preparing with already 500 formalized candidates out of 577, the party still has time to recruit the 77 missing personalities. It must be said that prospecting for candidates has been organized since the fall and experienced a boost when Éric Zemmour officially ran for the 2022 presidential election.
On the side of LREM, several deputies of the presidential majority have announced that they will not stand for re-election in June, wishing to “lead differently” in their fights. According to the sociologist at the CNRS, Étienne Ollion, the party of the Republic in motion has 60.7% of deputies who, in the private sector, were executives. Thus, the question of the relationships and networks built during their mandate as MPs arises when they return to the private sector. For example, the LREM deputy from Paris Pierre Person would like to create a start-up. On the contrary, the Minister of National Education, Jean-Michel Blanquer, could present himself as a deputy. According to newspaper information Release, Jean-Michel Blanquer is setting sail for Île-de-France and several doors could open in the Yvelines department: the districts of Poissy, Saint-Germain-en-Laye and Conflans-Sainte-Honorine. The mayor of Poissy and fervent supporter of Emmanuel Macron, Karl Olive, would have leads to help the current minister make his way to the National Assembly. According to Christophe Castaner, president of the LREM group in the Assembly, 80% of LREM deputies will stand for re-election.
Insubordinate France, which came third in the presidential election (with 21.95% of the vote) intends to “impose cohabitation” on Emmanuel Macron. Indeed, on France Inter, Adrien Quatennens, the number two of the party, indicated that it was necessary “to do what is necessary” so that the score of LFI manages to create favorable conditions. Indeed, according to him, what appears “clearly” are three political blocs and “that there is no political majority in this country enthusiastic about Emmanuel Macron’s program”. A union of the left should then “discuss” with the “new balance of power which is the one that we see at the exit of the polls”, with a view to the legislative elections. As the third political force in the country, the MP added that “the future of this country on the left is not social democracy, it is this popular bloc [qu’ils ont] constituted” and who “will be there”, because “lots of people are counting on [eux]”.
Éric Zemmour’s party, Reconquête!, has announced that 50 constituencies are already planned for those close to Marion Maréchal, “which correspond to his political weight”. The niece of Marine Le Pen had come to fill the ranks of Éric Zemmour on March 6th. We already know that the spokesperson for Éric Zemmour’s party, Antoine Diers, as well as the digital manager Samuel Lafont will be candidates, respectively in the North and the Gard. The leader of the Zemmour youth movement Stanislas Rigault and Benjamin Cauchy, former “yellow vest”, could also be candidates. Guillaume Peltier would be “a natural candidate” to seek his own succession in Loir-et-Cher announces Philippe Schleiter, the legislative officer at Reconquête!, but he has not yet declared himself. The candidacies for the legislative elections of Éric Zemmour and Sarah Knafo are, for the moment, not on the table. For Via, the way of the people, party carried by Christine Boutin, a maximum “ceiling” of 40 constituencies is planned.
Between Europe-Écologie-les-Verts and the Socialist Party, a meeting is to be held this Wednesday, April 13, with a view to a potential alliance for the legislative elections, while the respective candidates of each party, Yannick Jadot (EELV) and Anne Hidalgo (PS) were eliminated in the first round of the presidential election, with 4.63% and 1.75% respectively. After a historic defeat for the Socialists in the presidential election, a meeting of the national office of the PS will be held this Tuesday, April 12, where Olivier Faure, the first secretary of the Socialist Party, should be present and possibly Anne Hidalgo. Already the day before, the party leadership had met for a succession of meetings, without the candidate. On the set of BFMTV, last week, the president of the socialist group in the Senate, Patrick Kanner, had recalled that “the PS cannot claim to be the alpha & omega of a success in the legislative elections”, it will therefore be necessary that he negotiates with his allies to obtain seats in the Assembly.
Among the personalities who present themselves and who do not come from the political world, we find in particular Laurent Baffie. The comedian will be a candidate in the legislative elections in Paris, in the 3rd district, for the Animalist Party, the party announced on Tuesday, February 22. “I want to put my notoriety at the service of the Animalist Party and give it better visibility. This is my way of supporting it,” said Laurent Baffie in the party press release.
Who can run for the legislative elections?
(Almost) everyone can stand for parliamentary elections. It is mandatory, first of all, to be of legal age. According to the Electoral Code, to stand as a candidate for the legislative elections, a number of conditions must be met: be of legal age on the day of the election; enjoy their civic rights; not be in a case of incapacity or ineligibility provided for by law. Also, to be a candidate, it is necessary to file a declaration of candidacy in the prefecture for each ballot. This declaration must contain the following particulars: surname, first names, sex, date and place of birth, domicile, profession of the candidate; surname, first names, gender, date and place of birth, domicile, profession of the candidate’s replacement; constituency in which the application is made; candidate’s signature. The declaration must be accompanied by the written acceptance of the replacement. A candidate is not obliged, on the other hand, to appear on the electoral list of one of the communes of the legislative constituency he is targeting. The candidate must also provide documents to prove that he has appointed a financial agent. For the first round, declarations of candidacy are submitted from Monday May 16 to Friday May 20, 2022. For the second round, the submission of candidacies is possible on June 13 and 14, 2022.
What status does a deputy have?
Deputies benefit from a specific statute which grants them particular rights and obligations. First of all, they benefit from diplomatic immunity, in order to preserve their independence, which takes two forms: non-liability which exempts parliamentarians from any prosecution for acts related to the exercise of their mandate and inviolability which regulates the conditions under which criminal action is exercised for acts unrelated to their function.
Also, MPs are subject to specific prohibitions. They may not receive any French decoration during their mandate or use their status for advertising purposes. Each deputy is subject to the obligation to declare his assets at the beginning and at the end of his term of office and must provide a declaration of interests and activities. Since 2017, MEPs must, at the start of their mandate, certify that they have complied with their tax obligations. In the event of failure to fulfill their obligations, they may be declared ineligible by the Constitutional Council for a maximum of three years and automatically resign from their mandate.
Deputies are imposed on the non-accumulation of mandates. The mandate of deputy is in particular incompatible with the functions of mayor, borough mayor, deputy mayor, deputy mayor, president and vice-president of regional and departmental councils and inter-municipal cooperation establishments (EPCI) with their own taxation. A parliamentarian can no longer choose between his parliamentary mandate and his local mandate in the event of accumulation. He retains the most recently acquired mandate and he automatically resigns from the oldest mandate. The law also specifies that a deputy who applies for another mandate is required to resign, before the election, from the mandate he is exercising.
The results of previous legislative
The results of the previous legislative elections had allowed Emmanuel Macron to govern with an absolute majority, since 350 seats out of 577 had been allocated, in 2017, to the parties La République en Marche and the MoDem. The Les Républicains party then became the leading opposition party, with 112 seats. The Socialist Party recorded a very severe defeat, with the election of only 30 parliamentarians at the Bourbon Palace. La France insoumise had managed to constitute a parliamentary group, with 17 elected members, the National Rally had brought 8 elected members into the National Assembly.