will the “small” parties survive this express campaign? Five questions for a political scientist

The surprise dissolution of the National Assembly requires an unprecedented campaign for the legislative elections which will take place on June 30 and July 7. After submitting their candidacy on Sunday June 16, the candidates have less than two weeks to convince their voters. Beyond the large political blocs, small parties have encountered difficulties in presenting themselves. Some have even given up on entering the race, like the animalist party. What future for these parties? Franceinfo met Christophe Boutin, political scientist and university professor of public law in Caen.

franceinfo: Are the legislative elections a voting method that favors small parties compared to the European elections?

Christophe Boutin : The European elections are a national proportional voting system. So it is the best voting method for small parties, with a reservation of course which is the minimum rate to be able to obtain deputies. In France, as in other European countries, we have retained the minimum rate of 5%. This is what makes it possible to obtain the distribution. On the other hand, to be present in the second round of the legislative elections, you must have obtained 12.5% ​​of registered voters. The voting method is single-member in two rounds, not in one round as for the European elections and limited to a constituency in which the roots of the parliamentarian will play an important role.

“Legislative elections are not the ideal place for the appearance of new groups.”

Christophe Boutin, political scientist

at franceinfo

The three-week express campaign for the legislative elections complicates things even more for these parties?

Absolutely. It’s even more difficult because they have almost no time to make themselves known. In addition, in the case of this 2024 campaign, there is a sort of dramatization of the campaign which propels three large blocs forward and which therefore very largely eclipses those which are not directly integrated into the three large blocs. This is the case of the Pirate Party which believes that the votes it could obtain in the first round would prevent certain candidates from the New Popular Front from reaching the second round. And so, the party is not going there. Another solution is negotiation which can be done before the candidates are established, with a distribution of constituencies, as for the Liot group.

Does this absorption of small parties by larger parties endanger political plurality?

Yes and no. The three blocks are composed differently. You have a bloc which is structured around a single party, the National Rally, while the other two blocs are coalition blocs, more or less fragile when exercising power. Nupes, for example, between 2022 and 2024, experienced significant internal tensions. It is not excluded that within the presidential majority, we will see multiple tensions appear following the dissolution or even after the legislative elections.

Small parties also depend a lot on public funding, whereas the larger parties find funds elsewhere?

The distribution of public funds for political parties is based on two elements: on the one hand, the number of parliamentarians and on the other hand, the votes which were obtained during the last legislative elections. So, not showing up, in fact, means losing public funding, that’s for sure. This is particularly the case of the animalist party which is not presenting any candidates for the legislative elections due to lack of resources.

Has the number of candidates decreased for these elections in 2024 compared to the legislative elections in 2022?

For Lower Normandy – where I work – in the three departments of Manche, Orne and Calvados, overall there is a 30% drop in the number of candidates compared to 2022. Which is not illogical. We can have two readings. First reading: it’s a shame for pluralism. The other reading that we also give you is that sometimes, we have candidates who have no chance of being elected and who come to disrupt the election. They do not really bring a democratic element. You have to find a happy medium.