The bigger it is, the more it goes, as the saying goes, except here. In the fourth constituency in North America (Quebec and the Atlantic provinces), voters are called to the polls again on October 22, for the fifth time this year! Enough to twist your wrist putting ballots in the ballot box because only physical voting is authorized. The two leaders of this collision are Virginie Beaudet and Laurent Gonin, who were both elected last May from among the seven advisers to French expatriates who emerged from the elections by a very close vote. Apart from the fact that the two complainants engaged in unorthodox and, above all, illegal manoeuvres, the State Council notes. Virginie Beaudet’s list clearly showed on her posters and flyers the support of Nicolas Hulot and that of Laurent Gonin that of Emmanuel Macron. Everyone had taken care to reproduce the large portrait of the former Environment Minister with text and signature, as well as the large photo of the head of state. Except none of them had received the valuable media support they claimed! The French Supreme Administrative Court, attacked by the “real” LREM candidate Florent Pigeyre, therefore assumed in its decision that the election campaign of the two candidates was likely to mislead the voters.

Propaganda Commission

The two elections are canceled, but in fact it is the seven local councilors and delegates from the constituency who are relieved of their mandates. So what legitimacy will there be for the newly elected officers whose names will emerge from the ballot box on October 22nd? Without a nationwide campaign and online voting (too expensive to organize for a single constituency), it is abstention that promises to break all records. The first dispute had already ended up before the State Council in 2014. At the time, a Montreal veterinarian, François Lubrina, was accused of compiling lists of various political persuasions to create just one of which he would take the lead at the time of the election: the Assembly of French Nationals Abroad (AFE). To put an end to these scams, Senator Jean-Yves Leconte and his colleague Christophe-André Frassa propose the creation of a propaganda commission to examine the creeds of all candidates for the post of adviser to French expatriates.