After throwing “a call to the mayors” Monday, Marine Le Pen announces this Tuesday that she is suspending her campaign “ground” “until sponsorship is obtained”. The candidate of the National Rally, finalist at the Elysee Palace in 2017 and given second position in the polls behind Emmanuel Macron in the first round, is worried about not bringing together the 500 signatures of elected officials necessary to be able to run. About ten days before the deadline, she has collected only 366 referrals. As a direct consequence of the campaign suspension, his press conference scheduled for Wednesday in Paris on education “is postponed”just like a trip to the Somme which was to take place on Saturday, said the entourage of the RN candidate.
366 referrals
The Constitutional Council, which will publish updated sponsorship lists this Tuesday at 5 p.m. and Thursday, has set March 4 as the deadline to collect 500 signatures, in at least 30 departments. The ecologist Yannick Jadot could validate his 500 sponsorships during this next update.
But Marine Le Pen is not not the only presidential candidate struggling to obtain 500 sponsorships, a subject that has become a major concern of the campaign: his far-right rival Eric Zemmour (291 sponsorships) has had to cancel a trip planned for this week to Reunion to devote himself to calling elected officials.
Jean-Luc Mélenchon (LFI), also given more than 10% in the voting intentions in the first round, Nicolas Dupont-Aignan (Debout La France), Christiane Taubira or even Hélène Thouy (Parti animaliste) and Philippe Poutou (NPA) , are also quite far from the 500 signatures required.
120 mayors have joined the “bank” of sponsorships
Faced with the difficulties of the main candidates, more than 120 mayors responded to the initiative of the president of the MoDem François Bayrou to create a “bank” of sponsorships to enable them to obtain the 500 signatures, he indicated on Europe on Tuesday. 1.
For the moment, only LR Valérie Pécresse, outgoing President Emmanuel Macron, who is not yet a formal candidate, socialist Anne Hidalgo, communist Fabien Roussel, Jean Lassalle and Nathalie Arthaud (LO) have obtained them, subject to final validation of their candidacy by the Constitutional Council.
No candidate well placed in the polls has ever failed to collect them during a presidential election.