Four years ago, the presidential election was overshadowed and the campaign overshadowed by the war in Ukraine. Emmanuel Macron did not even clash with the other first-round candidates.
Radio France and its local network Ici are doing all they can to keep the municipal debate alive. But you can’t do anything about candidates who are boycotting it!
This week was supposed to be the one of the big confrontation for Paris, with televised debates. Cancellations keep pouring in since Rachida Dati doesn’t want to face it.
And now, the war in the Middle East.
How will voters decide? Feeling? Label? This trend Tik-Tok-ing campaign won’t replace the written professions of faith distributed in mailboxes.
The Montaigne Institute, a liberal think tank, laments the unquantified promises and the poverty of this municipal campaign.
“We have exhausted all recourse, taxation is at a maximum, city debt has increased significantly, and state grants will necessarily decrease given our public finances. So the message that there is no more money is still not going through, neither during the 2026 budget vote nor during this municipal campaign. And it seems absolutely essential to the Montaigne Institute that it comes across for the presidential campaign.”
And this municipal campaign is being led without the classic crutch of interim elections!
How to nationalize a poll when the presidential party has nearly disappeared from the radar screens? How many Renaissance-labeled lists this year? Less than ten, compared to 247 in 2020. Gabriel Attal continues his tour in Europe. Sebastien Lecornu does not participate in any meeting.
All this is a warning before the presidential election. 2020: a campaign under Covid. 2022: Ukraine. 2024: dissolution and legislative elections completed in 3 weeks. 2026: Iran.
To project itself, to be clear, the country needs a real, long, and demanding campaign.
Immense responsibility lies with the media, but first and foremost with the candidates.
