The first secretary of the Socialist Party (PS), Olivier Faure, protested, Saturday May 18, in a letter to the Regulatory Authority for Audiovisual and Digital Communication (Arcom), of the organization on May 23. a debate on France 2 between the Prime Minister, Gabriel Attal, and the head of the National Rally (RN) list in the European elections in June, Jordan Bardella, seeing it as a “fundamental democratic problem” less than three weeks before the vote – he takes place in France on June 9.
“A debate organized for the European elections cannot be reduced in our country to a confrontation between the right and the extreme right, excluding any representation of left-wing groups,” wrote Olivier Faure in a letter to the president of Arcom, Roch-Olivier Maistre, of which Agence France-Presse (AFP) had a copy and which was revealed by Libération.
In support of his referral to Arcom, Olivier Faure observes that the head of government, Gabriel Attal, “is not a candidate for the European election, and that he is replacing the head of the Renaissance list” , Valérie Hayer, to face the president of the RN, a very large favorite in the polls.
“Disregarding equal treatment and respect for political pluralism two weeks before a major political election, the debate organized by France 2 poses a fundamental democratic problem,” believes the boss of the PS, whose joint list with Place publique, led by Raphaël Glucksmann, is third in the polls.
Olivier Faure evokes an Italian precedent
Olivier Faure asks Arcom to implement its “regulatory power to ensure respect for the pluralist expression of the political debate, and hence the sincerity of the June 9 vote”. The regulatory authority had sent, on Friday, a letter to the president of France Télévisions, Delphine Ernotte-Cunci, in which she considered that this debate was “likely to compromise compliance with the rules which apply to the treatment of the campaign in view of the European elections”.
The regulator asked France Télévisions to inform it of the “provisions that the channel intends to implement to guarantee other lists of candidates full respect for fair presentation and access to its broadcast”, according to the text of this letter that AFP obtained.
Olivier Faure also bases his referral on the cancellation in Italy of a debate scheduled for May 23 on public television RAI between the president of the council, Giorgia Meloni, and the leader of the opposition, Elly Schlein. The Italian regulator recalled that equal treatment must be offered to all parties in the run-up to the European elections.
