Legislative elections 2022fileThree candidates from Egalité Europe Ecologie, a party supporting Emmanuel Macron, show faces unrelated to those who appeared on their leaflets during June’s general election.Questioned by Karim, 19 March
Is showing his real appearance on election posters and leaflets part of the “contract” between a candidate and the citizens? This question arises at the turn of the partial parliamentary elections. After the annulment by the Constitutional Council of the elections in the 2nd, 8th and 9th constituencies of the French living outside France, partial parliamentary elections will be held there again on April 2nd and 16th, 2023 (April 1st and 15th in America).
On this occasion, the Equality Europe Ecology party, which claims to be close to the “presidential majority”, presents three candidates for these constituencies: Juliette de Causans for the 8th constituency (Cyprus, Greece, Israel, Italy, Malta, San Marino, Turkey, Palestinian Territories, Vatican); Tatiana Boteva Malo for 2nd place (Latin America and the Caribbean) and Samira Herbal for 9th place (Maghreb and West Africa). On the site dedicated to this election, the party circulates the posters and the professions of the candidates, who are very smiling.
However, these faces clearly bear little resemblance to those of the candidates. In any case, they are very different from the photos that appeared in the campaign sheets produced ten months earlier for the general elections in June. These candidates appear younger, more smiling and even with longer hair. While Tatiana Boteva Malo wears the same clothes and maintains the pose, contestants Samira Herbal and Juliette de Causans are almost unrecognizable.
Contacted by CheckNews, contestant Juliette de Causans assures that she is in fact in the photo, stating that the image “was not Photoshopped.” On the other hand, it suggests that it is an old photo. “I won’t tell you if the photo is recent or not,” she says, referring us to pictures from her youth. Why this choice?
Following her candidacy in the Ardennes in June, she admitted she “didn’t get good feedback” with a picture that was “taken in a hurry, pixelated and with no makeup on.” She says she “chosen the best photo of mine and asked the graphic designer to put warm lights like in Italy” where she is presenting. She states that she chose this younger image and then presented it to the other two contestants “who were inspired by it afterwards”.
In fact, Samira Herbal provides the same explanation. “It’s my photo,” she assures CheckNews, before admitting that “she’s got some time.” “Four or five years,” she estimates. When asked if she changed her image between the June and April elections, she pleaded that she wanted to “change the content, with an image I like better.” The newcomer does not dare to say the retouching stage and “imagines that they have to clarify a little”. Regarding Tatiana Boteva Malo, Juliette de Causans loses that “she paid for a photo studio” but doesn’t want to answer for her about her motives. When asked, the candidate for Latin America did not want to comment on her image.
No ban provided for in French electoral law
Is it legal to retouch an image or opt for old photos on choice footage, even if it means it’s unrecognizable? This point is not addressed in the memorabilia for candidates in the general elections. The Ministry of the Interior only recalls that “it is forbidden: to print a poster on uniformly white paper, unless it is covered with characters or colored images (art. 15 of the law of July 29, 1881)” and “the French flag or the juxtaposition of the colors blue, white and red when confused with the national emblem, unless it is the emblem of one or more political parties or groups (Articles L.48 and R.27)” . The document adds that “otherwise, the mentions and content of the posters are not controlled”.
When asked by Checknews, lawyer Jean-Christophe Ménard, a specialist in electoral law, confirms that “neither the electoral law nor the case law prohibits candidates from using a photo of their face that has been retouched or photoshopped. Such a ban would not only be an attack on the candidates’ freedom of expression, it would also be very difficult to implement as it would require determining the level of retouching at which a photo no longer corresponds to reality in order to be misleading – à-vis the voters.
During our exchange, Juliette de Causans regretted the attacks and harassment. The Renaissance Party’s Twitter account for French expatriates shared a montage of the candidate’s two images, wryly saying that she “learned how to use Photoshop,” recalling that “she still doesn’t know the candidate of the majority in the presidency.” . The Mayor of Reims, Arnaud Robinet, who now walks alongside Édouard Philippe within the Horizons party, mocked her on Twitterasked if she had been “the subject of identity theft,” adding, “The profile picture on your Twitter account doesn’t match you.”
“Disturbing candidates’ election campaigns by trying to make people believe that they don’t have the right to choose their best photo and produce posters that are as beautiful as possible raises questions for me,” defends the candidate, who nevertheless commits to be “presidential majority with Emmanuel Macron”.