David Lisnard, the Les Républicains mayor of Cannes, gives his sponsorship to Jean-Luc Mélenchon – Archyde

While several presidential candidates express their fears of not obtaining the 500 sponsorships necessary to stand for election, the mayor Les Républicains (LR) of Cannes, David Lisnard, announced on Sunday February 20 that he was giving his to the candidate of La France insoumise, Jean-Luc Mélenchon.

“I decided to sponsor the candidate from whom I am furthest away, since I am ranked on the right, which is Jean-Luc Mélenchon. I ardently fight his convictions, his ideas and his values, but he must be able to compete”said the chosen one in a video tour in his office at City Hall. The leader of rebellious France has for the moment only 370 initials despite the 10% of voting intentions with which he is credited.

President of the Association of Mayors of France (AMF), Mr. Lisnard, who supports Valérie Pécresse, takes this initiative ” personally “, “for civic concern”, “to show that sponsorships are not worth support”.

“If Jean-Luc Mélenchon, or Marine Le Pen, who has a long-standing presence with a major political party and who is second in the polls, or Éric Zemmour who has a dynamic, could not present themselves, that would be a serious attack on democracy “, he continued. the aedile recalled that mayors, but also parliamentarians, regional or departmental councilors can give sponsorships.

Manuel Bompard, campaign director for Jean-Luc Mélenchon, thanked David Lisnard on Twitter and greeted a “democratic gesture”. “It confirms that sponsorship is not worth support and that elected officials must allow different currents of thought to be present in the presidential election”, wrote the MEP. The candidate of the National Rally also reacted on Sunday evening with thanks to David Lisnard “for his Republican call for sponsorships and his respect for the French”.

Only six candidates have their 500 sponsorships

So far, six candidates, declared or not, have already obtained 500 sponsorships: Valérie Pécresse, Emmanuel Macron, Anne Hidalgo, Nathalie Arthaud, Fabien Roussel and Jean Lassalle. As in 2017, the Constitutional Council publishes twice a week – on Tuesdays and Thursdays – the number of sponsorships received and validated for each candidate.

Several candidates, including Marine Le Pen, Eric Zemmour and Christiane Taubira, expressed their concern on Sunday about their still insufficient number of sponsorships. For me^me Taubira, winner of the Popular Primary which brought together nearly 400,000 voters at the beginning of January, “we are in a democratic questioning”. “It would mean that a democratic process, which mobilized nearly half a million people, would be prevented by an administrative device”she estimated Sunday on BFM-TV.

At the beginning of February, the president of the MoDem, François Bayrou, announced that he had set up a reserve of “200 to 300” elected to sponsor candidates for the presidential election who are struggling to reach 500 sponsorships, as well as the creation of a site to facilitate the sponsorship of mayors to these candidates. The High Commissioner for Planning then explained that applications which would not be validated for lack of sufficient sponsorship even though the candidates are high in the voting projections or have been so in the past at the ballot box, would represent “a huge risk” for democracy.

Elected officials have until Friday March 4 at 6 p.m. to send to the Constitutional Council, by post only, the official form and envelope that they will receive from the State. The President of the Constitutional Council, Laurent Fabius, will announce the final list of candidates on Monday March 7, about a month before the first round, on April 10.