Steph Deschamps / March 2, 2022
The far-right presidential candidates Marine Le Pen and Éric Zemmour have obtained the 500 sponsorships of elected officials needed to run in this election, as well as the sovereignist candidate Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, according to the count published Tuesday by the Constitutional Council.
Éric Zemmour had 620 sponsorships, Nicolas Dupont-Aignan 532, and Marine Le Pen 503, according to the list published by the institution on its website.
The candidates for the Elysee have until Friday 18:00 to transmit their precious documents to the Constitutional Council, which must then verify that the sponsorships come from at least 30 different departments.
The three candidates thus join the eight other candidates who have already obtained the necessary signatures to be formally on the starting line for the first round on April 10.
The LR candidate Valérie Pécresse caracole in the lead with 2,457 initials, followed by President Emmanuel Macron, who still has to formalize his candidacy by Friday, with 1,785 sponsorships, then the socialist Anne Hidalgo (1. 318), LFI candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon (808), environmentalist Yannick Jadot (669), communist Fabien Roussel (613), MP Jean Lassalle (602) and Lutte ouvrière candidate Nathalie Arthaud (568).
Among the candidates who do not yet have the 500 signatures, Christiane Taubira had 181 on Tuesday.
MoDem president François Bayrou, a close ally of outgoing president Emmanuel Macron, had announced on Sunday that he would give his sponsorship to Marine Le Pen, in the name of democracy.
He had indicated Friday that his initiative of bank of sponsorships had collected the support of 365 signatories, a reserve a priori sufficient to guarantee Marine Le Pen and Eric Zemmour to compete.
The Prime Minister Jean Castex had called last Tuesday the elected representatives to bring their sponsorships to the presidential candidates, by underlining that such a step is not automatically synonymous of political support.
Nearly 42,000 elected officials, including 34,000 mayors, can grant their sponsorship.