The final hours of many electoral campaigns are frantic affairs, dominated by last-minute pitches, late-breaking polls and massive social media campaigns aimed at drumming up turnout.
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Not so in France.
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Rules dating back more than half a century impose a 44-hour time out ahead of the polls’ closure Sunday, meaning that politicians, journalists — and even ordinary citizens — are supposed to refrain from broadcasting any form of electoral propaganda.
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The Twitter feeds of France’s 11 presidential candidates went quiet after midnight Friday. French television coverage was subdued. And if you’re a journalist who has just received a newsworthy tip about one candidate or the other, you’re just too late.
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The press can’t publish such a story, said Pascal Jan, a professor of constitutional law at Sciences Po Bordeaux. If there were a scandal, it should have been exposed Friday.
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The national time out lasts from midnight Friday to 8 p.m. on Sunday in France and is intended to give voters time to reflect on their choice free from the distraction of surveys, radio commentary, and televised rallies.
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The rules apply online as well, meaning that candidates and their campaigns can’t do so much as post updates to Facebook or Instagram. The rules even apply to French voters — meaning that someone posting a pro-Socialist or pro-Republican message online could fall afoul of the law, at least in theory.
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It applies to all of us. It’s totally forbidden, said Jan, although he acknowledged that, in practice, a single person posting wouldn’t be sanctioned for expressing themselves online. But if it became massive … it would unbalance the contest and thus might influence the votes of those who were exposed to social media.
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Amid chatter about foreign propaganda and so-called fake news possibly affecting the vote, French authorities seem to be keeping a close eye on potential violations of…