In Marseille, a reform of the municipal voting method awaited without enthusiasm

2023-12-29 18:15:08
The mayor of Marseille, Benoît Payan, at the Elysée, July 4, 2023. LUDOVIC MARIN / AFP

The reform of the electoral law known as “PLM” (for Paris-Lyon-Marseille) is progressing in Paris, far from the Old Port, with a bill which could be presented to the Assembly at the beginning of 2024. And this is necessarily worrying Marseille elected officials, who, for the most part, only perceive a distant echo of it. Friday, December 15, the question was raised several times at the municipal council. Questioned by the Renaissance deputy for Bouches-du-Rhône Lionel Royer-Perreaut, who wants the elected officials of the second largest city in France to display “a convergent approach carried out collectively”the mayor, Benoît Payan (various left), said “taker” of a united position between “the department, the metropolis and the city”.

But he also set his conditions. Mr. Payan is not “favorable to a reform of the voting system” municipal which divides its city into eight electoral sectors only on one condition: that Marseille joins the ranks of all French municipalities. “Common law, and nothing else. With the same majority premium [à la liste gagnante] and the same calculation of the number of votes (…). If there is an exception, there will be controversy”, predicts the mayor of Marseille. In mid-December, he went to Paris to make his voice heard among the advisers of Emmanuel Macron, Sylvain Maillard, leader of the Renaissance deputies who are carrying the bill, and Eric Woerth, in charge of a “decentralization mission” by the President of the Republic.

Benoît Payan has concrete reasons to campaign for the modification of the PLM law. During the last election, in July 2020, his party, Le Printemps marseillais, almost saw itself deprived of its victory in terms of number of votes. Only an alliance with elected officials from the lists of former Socialist Party (PS) senator Samia Ghali gave her a majority in the municipal council. An episode which was not a first. In 1983, just three months after the promulgation of the law, Gaston Defferre (PS), then Minister of the Interior, took advantage of the new division to beat Jean-Claude Gaudin (UDF), although he had the majority of votes.

“Really a priority? »

“The 1982 law was only motivated by Defferre’s desire to change the rule in his city to save his election. The idea of ​​bringing local elected officials closer was just a quibble to get his manipulation across. And he got Paris and Lyon involved in the affair”remembers, still angry, Maurice Battin, who, for twenty-two years, was the specialist in electoral calculation within the cabinets of Jean-Claude Gaudin.

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