Less than two months before the first round of the presidential election in France, the candidate of the National Rally (RN) has only collected 393 sponsorships from local elected officials out of the 500 sponsorships needed to run. Prime Minister Jean Castex called on elected officials on Tuesday to sponsor the candidates.
His school program will wait, his trip to the Somme is postponed. Marine Le Pen now spends part of her days on the phone. The countdown has started: about forty signatures are still missing according to a party executive.
” We are forced to prostitute ourselves to be a candidate “, denounces a close friend of Marine Le Pen, “ outraged to see his candidate interrupt his campaign to collect signatures. Another elected RN says he called dozens of mayors without anyone wanting to sponsor a single candidate, for fear of reprisals from the Communities of Communes, reports Julien Chavannefrom the political service of RFI.
Provide sponsorship does not automatically equate to political support “, Prime Minister Jean Castex recalled on Tuesday, calling on elected officials to “ bring their sponsorships to presidential candidates. The head of government also indicated that he was going to receive all the associations of local elected officials on Thursday morning, as well as the presidents of the National Assembly and the Senate in order to “ to discuss this situation together with respect for everyone’s freedom », « because there is a deeply democratic subject “.
The call from the head of Jean Castex to the mayors comes too late for an adviser to Marine Le Pen who is surprised at the silence of Emmanuel Macron. “ He would rather play junk Nobel Prizes in Ukraine than take care of our democracy », Attacks this member of the first circle.
Marine Le Pen is expected to resume her campaign next week with a visit to the Agricultural Show. By then, she will chain two major programs on France 2, between several phone calls.
And time is running out, candidates have until March 4 to find the 500 sponsorships. In addition to Marine Le Pen, two other candidates credited with more than 10% of the voting intentions in the polls remain below the fateful bar: the Insoumis Jean-Luc Mélenchon (442 signatures) and the Reconquest candidate! Eric Zemmour (350).
► To read also: Presidential 2022: the sponsorship battle rages