France’s PM Edouard Philippe has announced that the government may postpone elections until 2021 due to Coronavirus crisis

France’s PM Edouard Philippe has announced that the government may postpone elections until 2021 due to Coronavirus crisis

FRENCH Prime Minister Edouard Philippe announced on Wednesday that the government is considering holding the final round of mayoral elections at the end of June or redoing the elections completely in January 2021.

Out of France’s 35,000 cities, towns and villages about 30,000 have already elected their mayor in the first round. But larger cities including Paris, Lyon and Marseille are among the 5,000 remaining.

Philippe said the elections could only be held at the end of June if conditions surrounding the health crisis would allow it and that no final decision had been made. A postponement beyond July 1 would require cancelling the results of elections held in March for the cities that did not elect a mayor at the first round and organising a new ballot. The first round was just two days before the start of a nationwide lockdown, to the bewilderment of many as Philippe then said the vote would still go ahead.

“The majority of the participants are in favour of a ballot on 28 June,” the head of centrist UDI party Jean-Christophe Lagarde told Reuters, asking for a postponement of the vote to 2021.

The organisation of a second round at the end of June “is the preferred option, it seems,” said Socialist Party leader Olivier Faure.

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