Can the municipal elections of Montluçon of 2020 be canceled? The Clermont-Ferrand administrative court will look into the question after hearing this Thursday, January 21, 2020 the public rapporteur answer in the negative. The case is now under advisement.
Two appeals that targeted the mayor’s list
Two appeals were examined. One carried by Philippe Reyt, candidate on the list of Joseph Roudillon (DVD). The other by Willy Vanhonnacker, a support from Frédéric Kott (DVG). The two men had seized the jurisdiction at the beginning of July to cancel the elections of March 15 and June 28, focusing their remarks on the list of Frédéric Laporte (LR) winning the ballot box.
Frédéric Laporte’s Facebook page in the debate
The public rapporteur rejected most of the complaints raised by Philippe Reyt and Willy Vanhonnacker but retained the one relating to the use of his Facebook page by the mayor Frédéric Laporte. The magistrate considered that we were in the presence of a “Maneuver that caused confusion among voters”.
When he became mayor of Montluçon in December 2017, Frédéric Laporte created a Facebook page to communicate on his action as an elected official. It is this same page that allowed him to lead his electoral campaign from January 2020 when it was followed by some 2,500 people.
A mixture of information
« This page gave institutional information as well as elements of electoral propaganda, and the graphic charter was similar to that of the city ”, underlined the public rapporteur to explain the“ confusion ”created among citizens.
“From the moment the page titles are different, the voters are large enough to distinguish between things,” pleaded for his part the lawyer defending the interests of the list of Frédéric Laporte.
In his appeal, Willy Vanhonnacker noted that it was “undeniable that the“ Frédéric Laporte ”page was managed by the city’s communication service”, “at least” between 2017 and 2019. “The candidate Laporte had at his entry in campaign of an audience acquired in his capacity as mayor thanks to municipal resources. ”An argument that the magistrate did not take up.
Too large a voice gap
Anyway, the public rapporteur considered that this “maneuver” could not “alter the sincerity of the ballot given the difference in votes”. In the second round, Frédéric Laporte came in first with 283 votes ahead of the second, Frédéric Kott. In a similar case, the Council of State had validated the cancellation of municipal elections (judgment of 6 May 2015) in Hermes (Oise) but this time there were only five votes apart.
The results of the elections in Montluçon
The arrival of Laurent Wauquiez just before the second round
The public rapporteur brushed aside the other remarks. We can cite the visit of the president of the regional council Laurent Wauquiez to Montluçon, twelve days before the second round. He had promised 500,000 euros for the creation of jobs in the town while Frédéric Laporte proclaimed that his team was the only one that could “work effectively with the region”. But for the magistrate, there is “nothing abnormal” in an elected Republicans supporting a candidate from the same party.
The Region says it is ready to put 500,000 euros on the table to help Recyclea relocate jobs to Montluçon
The famous anonymous USB key
Philippe Reyt had for his part brandished the anonymous USB key addressed to Montluçonnais to tarnish the reputation of Joseph Roudillon. The mountain had established in its edition of January 31, 2020 that a former member of the cabinet of Frédéric Laporte had created a PDF document which appeared in the USB key. But for the magistrate, this affair arrived early enough in the campaign for Joseph Roudillon to provide an answer to the accusations linking him to the extreme right.
Guillaume Bellavoine
Anonymous letters of denunciation in Montluçon: a computer trace goes back to the mayor’s office
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