Less than a week before the first round of early legislative elections in France, the “small parties” are still trying as best they can to find their place in a lightning electoral campaign largely dominated by the three blocs of left, center and extreme RIGHT.
6 mins
Sunday morning, at the Bastille market. It’s campaign day for candidates for the 7th district of Paris. There is Emmanuel Grégoire, first deputy of Anne Hidalgo and candidate for the New Popular Front, Clément Beaune, former minister ofEmmanuel MacronAurélien Véron for Les Républicains “ non-ciottists »… And Philippe Mazuel, from Pace (pronounced “Patched”), the European Citizens’ Party.
With a packet of leaflets in hand, this management professor approaches passers-by to establish a dialogue. “ I prefer qualitative to quantitative », he confides with a smile. In this district which placed Raphaël Glucksmann in the lead among the Europeans, many are reluctant to vote for the New Popular Front, due to the presence of La France insoumise within the left alliance. So Philippe Mazuel refines his approach by emphasizing his center-left positioning and his independence. “ It’s important to have small parties. They bring diversity, they enrich the debate », greets a fifty-something between two stalls. From there to vote for them…
At 68 years old, the Pace co-president is in his sixth electoral campaign. During the last European elections, his party received 0.03% of the votes. He came out “ on the kneecaps “, both physically and financially. The announcement of the dissolution on the evening of June 9 and the holding of legislative elections three weeks later therefore had the effect of a hammer blow. For a party which only has around a hundred members, it is difficult to replenish itself in such a short time. We had to resign ourselves: the party would only present two candidates, instead of the eight planned. “ A campaign like this costs 5,500 euros per constituency. And we are only reimbursed if we make 5%, which is not at all a given », remarks Philippe Mazuel, who had to go out of his own pocket to be able to finance it.
A risk of invisibility
Open a campaign account, have your Wikipedia page… To hear this Saint-Cyrian, keeping a party like his alive is a constant battle. Not to mention the electoral system itself which would favor the big teams. “ Bulletins, posters… All of these are obstacles to democracy », he denounces. And to cite other European models as an example: “ In the Netherlands, municipalities are responsible for displaying. In Germany, there is a single ballot that you check. »
Nothing, however, to discourage him. “ I believe that one of the greatest qualities is perseverance. “, he asserts. Above all, the co-president of Pace values his difference. Out of the question, therefore, to ally with a major party. “ We would be completely invisible. However, we seek to open people up to other ideas. As we have few means and we work, it takes time. But little by little, the bird makes its nest. »
On the other side of the Seine, the very young Équinoxe party also intends to carve out a place for itself in this tripolarized campaign. A small group of its activists met in a square in the 15th arrondissement to distribute leaflets. The strategy is simple, at least in appearance: arouse the interest of walkers in a single sentence. “ We tell them that we are a party of young people, green, neither right nor left and pro-nuclear », summarizes Ingrid Allorant, 27 years old, professor of history and geography and candidate in the 13th constituency. But it’s not easy to make yourself known in such a short time. “ This is a first start, reassures Briac Favé, engineering student and party communications manager. We rely on repetition. The objective is to multiply on the ground and on social networks. »
The method seems to have proven itself. In just six months, the training says it has grown from 400 to 4,700 members. To Europeans, she obtained 0.29% of the votes. Two weeks later, she intends to transform the test. Forty-one candidates were nominated. For many, this is a first. “ For that, it’s a good thing that this campaign is so short. This allows you to have an overview. We tell ourselves that if things go badly, we can quickly move on to something else. “, reassures Ingrid Allorant, who says she can rely on a united team.
“ Discrimination by money »
If, like Pace and Équinoxe, other “small parties” launched themselves into the legislative elections, many preferred to give up. This is the case of Pirate party, Florian Philippot’s Patriots… Or even the Animalist Party. In eight years of existence, the movement defending the animal cause had not missed a single electoral meeting. “ A heartbreak », blurts, bitterly, Hélène Thouy, its co-president.
On the evening of the dissolution, however, there were many within the party who wanted to leave, despite very short deadlines and an exhausting campaign carried out in parallel with their professional activity. But financially impossible. In the European elections, the party won 2% of the votes. Not enough to be reimbursed for his campaign expenses – 1.3 million euros, most of which was used to print and distribute ballot papers and professions of faith. “ It’s outrageous to have to pay such huge fees just to get ballots. », exclaims Hélène Thouy who also denounces a “ discrimination by money “.
However, legislative elections play a major role in party financing. They can in fact claim public funding if they win at least 1% of the votes in 50 constituencies. The Animalist Party’s result in the 2022 legislative elections allowed it to obtain 90,000 euros annually for five years. The dissolution of the Assembly decided by Emmanuel Macron therefore sounds like a double punishment for Hélène Thouy: “ Not only do we lose our funding, but we cannot represent ourselves. »
But the most serious in his eyes is the consequence of this withdrawal. “ In these legislative elections, the themes that we defend are completely absent even though they are major. Such a short campaign only reinforces the divisions of an already extremely fractured society. It leaves no room for debate, for pluralism and it harms democracy. »