Spring break begins Friday evening, then there will be a series of public holidays. In the middle of the European campaign, political parties are seeking to manage the period that is opening as best as possible.
Published
Update
Reading time: 3 min
The European elections are in nine weeks, on June 9, but from Friday April 5, and for a month, there will always be part of France on vacation. Then comes May 1, then the great bridge of May 8 and the Ascension, without forgetting Pentecost. So many opportunities for the French to relax and think about everything except the elections. But for the campaign teams, this constrained schedule “gives the brain knots”confides an ecologist, “it’s a hassle”, we say to the PS. Candidates speak of a “campaign with holes”. “It’s not going to be easy to break the sound barrier”, summarizes an LR framework. The risk is to exhaust yourself speaking into a vacuum.
The formula in force in the teams of RN candidates at LFI: “We adapt”, because, for them, no vacation obviously. The PS has scheduled its meetings according to the zones which are not on leave and imagined “how to restart the campaign after each bridge”. The rebellious Manon Aubry will take advantage of a slack in mainland France to campaign in Reunion. The Macronists are starting to distribute departmentalized leaflets this weekend with “two positive effects of Europe near you”a version for Nièvre, one for the North, etc., just to play on proximity.
Europe Day falls… the May 8th bridge!
The candidates will continue to be in the media, with a new constraint, the speaking time rules change in mid-April in the audiovisual sector: room for fairness based on the polls and the latest electoral results. LR will go all out on the written press, when the RN will be able to run the sets. “It’s not because people are on vacation that they don’t watch TV”insists someone close to Jordan Bardella, who adds “the majority of French people cannot afford to leave”, so there is no question of taking our foot off the ground.
A date comes at a bad time for the pro-European parties: May 9, Europe Day. The dream date for major meetings just one month before the election. Missed, because there is a bridge! A macronist calls it “the double deck” of May 8 and Ascension. Not ideal for mass mobilizing activists. Valérie Hayer’s team is therefore considering presenting the program at that time. Raphaël Glucksmann, Marie Toussaint and François-Xavier Bellamy also want to mark the occasion, it remains to find the format that does not go unnoticed. At LR, we put things into perspective: “the French will really return to the countryside three weeks before the election”. So that’s when you’ll have to give it your all.