Municipal elections: the "Paris-Lyon-Marseille" reform rejected by the Senate committee

Adopted by the National Assembly in early April, less than a year before the municipal elections, the bill initiated by Renaissance elected officials risks a less glorious fate in the upper house, where the first two groups, Les Républicains and the Socialist Party, are overwhelmingly opposed to it.

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The balance of power was very clear in the Law Committee on Wednesday, with a unanimous rejection. Only the centrist and Macronist groups abstained at this stage, according to several participants.

In the National Assembly, the bill had been favored by the National Rally and La France Insoumise, in addition to the bulk of the governing coalition. But the National Rally has only a handful of elected representatives in the upper house and LFI has none, complicating the ambitions of the reform's advocates.

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This rejection in committee sends a bad signal ahead of the debate on the text in the House on Tuesday, June 3, even though several amendments could be tabled to modify the text, or even reduce its scope. A rejection by the Senate would not, however, completely compromise the final adoption of the reform because the government, which supports it, has certain levers to push it through, such as giving the " final word " to MPs, even if this would delay the parliamentary calendar.

" Poorly prepared, without any consultation, this bill poses multiple difficulties, both from a democratic and legal, and even constitutional, point of view, without achieving the stated objectives of standardizing and simplifying elections ," pointed out LR rapporteur Lauriane Josende to justify the rejection of the text.

LR senatorial leader Mathieu Darnaud lamented the lack of an " impact study ." " Is it wise to change a voting system in this way less than a year before the municipal elections? " he asked.

The bill would end the voting system introduced in 1982, under which voters in Paris, Lyon, and Marseille vote in each district for a list of councilors, with the top elected officials sitting on the district council and the municipal council. Instead, it provides for two separate ballots, one to elect district or sector councilors, and the other to elect municipal councilors, within a single constituency.

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