To discuss the organization of the presidential election in the context of Covid-19, four of the main candidates connected by videoconference Tuesday, January 11 for two hours with the Prime Minister and the Minister of the Interior, Franceinfo has learned. They are Marine Le Pen (RN), Jean-Luc Mélenchon (LFI), Yannick Jadot (EELV) and Eric Zemmour (Reconquest). The other declared candidates were represented by a member of their entourage, including Christiane Taubira who is not yet officially a candidate. Political parties were also represented, with a total of 35 participants. A meeting “overall cordial”, said one of the participants to franceinfo.
Prime Minister Jean Castex, Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin and Gabriel Attal, government spokesperson, gathered on site in Matignon. The Minister of Health Olivier Véran was finally excused, Franceinfo learned. Jean-Denis Combrexelle, the “sir regional and departmental elections” in 2021. Matignon confirmed at the end of the meeting that he would also be the “sir election 2022” at the head of a committee on the organization of the presidential election. Jean-Denis Combrexelle will thus pilot a liaison committee with political parties and candidates. Matignon formalized its implementation during the meeting on Tuesday. The first operational meeting will take place next Friday at 10 a.m., assures a government source to franceinfo.
The objective of this videoconference meeting was therefore to involve all the political parties to try to agree on the organization of the presidential election in April, while the Covid epidemic 19 flames in France. The parties and the teams of the candidates have agreed on this observation: there are additional constraints linked to the epidemic and therefore requirements that go with it. Eric Zemmour notably reiterated his attachment to meetings, “constitutive”, according to him, of our democratic life, he demanded that “the government renounces any idea of gauge”. Adding that“There is only Emmanuel Macron who thinks that we can meet his voters on the internet”. Another subject tackled by several candidates: the question of additional expenses linked to the epidemic, such as the rental of larger rooms to respect distancing, or the purchase of FFP2 masks to be provided to the public (certain parties such as the PCF or France rebellious already do).
In this regard, two avenues were mentioned during the meeting: the increase in the ceiling of authorized expenditure (a little over 16 million euros for the candidates in the first round) or an increase in the fixed price that all receive, it is to 800,000 euros approximately even for those who do not exceed 5%.
Before participating in the meeting, Gérald Darmanin for his part met this Tuesday morning Laurent Fabius, the president of the Constitutional Council, to address these questions. Laurent Fabius acted on the request of the Minister of the Interior, “took good note of this and confirmed to him that the adoption of such measures would call for control by the Constitutional Council (…) responsible for ensuring the regularity of the election of the President of the Republic”, according to a press release from the Constitutional Council.
During this meeting in Matignon, Patrick Stefanini, the campaign director of Valérie Pécresse (LR), according to information from franceinfo, announced at the end of the meeting that Christian Jacob, the party boss, was going to seize the campaign accounts commission and the ‘Arcom on the trip of Emmanuel Macron Monday, January 10 in Nice, who took stock of his five-year term in terms of security.