Montpellier municipal elections 2026: the courts finally give the green light to Rémi Gaillard's statement of faith

Comedian Rémi Gaillard, a candidate for mayor of Montpellier, won a court ruling on Tuesday, March 10, ordering the distribution of his campaign literature to voters. The administrative court ruled that the image used did not ultimately pose a risk of confusion with the national colors.

The judge in chambers in Montpellier granted Rémi Gaillard's request and overturned the decision made on Friday by the propaganda commission to refuse the stuffing of envelopes and the distribution of the 51-year-old comedian's campaign materials. head of the "Yes We Clown" list.

The judge noted that this staunch opponent of the outgoing mayor and candidate Michaël Delafosse (Socialist Party) had chosen as his image "the pieing of a person dressed in a business suit by a clown's hand, whose red shirt sleeve with yellow polka dots, a blue cuff, and a beige glove are visible, holding a gold platter against a blue and red background."

"A serious illegality"

But this "juxtaposition" of blue, beige, and red on the front of the campaign literature is not "likely to create the slightest confusion with the national emblem," the magistrate ruled.

"By refusing to ensure the distribution of these circulars," the commission of propaganda "committed a serious and blatant illegality likely to affect the integrity of the vote," he added, ordering the propaganda commission to send campaign materials to all voters in Montpellier. At the hearing Tuesday morning, the Hérault prefecture had, on the contrary, maintained that there was indeed a risk of confusion with the national emblem, which candidates are not allowed to use in their propaganda materials. Its secretary general, Véronique Martin Saint-Léon, had also emphasized that stuffing envelopes with some 175,000 additional leaflets for Rémi Gaillard would entail an additional cost of nearly €200,000 and that their distribution would be extremely difficult to achieve within the deadlines. Rémi Gaillard, who narrowly missed qualifying for the second round in 2020, is credited with 10% voting intention in an Ifop/Midi Libre poll conducted among 702 registered voters in Montpellier between February 9th and 16th.