Print ballots for the Assembly at the Centr’Imprim printing press in Issoudun (Indre), Friday, June 14. When printers learned of the dissolution of the National Assembly and the scheduled voting dates of June 30 and July 7, they were almost unanimously concerned about how they would be able to deliver all the electoral propaganda materials, such as candidate statements and ballots, to all 577 constituencies within such a short timeframe. The Union nationale des industries de l’impression et de la communication (Uniic) immediately warned that the deadline between the end of candidate submissions on Sunday, June 16, and the delivery of printed electoral materials at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, June 18, was too short.
Due to this unprecedented situation that was destabilizing the printers, the trade union demanded extra time from the government. The Union requested an additional twenty-four hours and was in discussions with the Ministry of the Interior’s elections board. The lack of time provided by the government overlooked the fact that the printing industry operates as an industrial sector. With no paper producers in France, supplies had to be sourced from countries like Scandinavia, Portugal, Spain, and Germany, causing difficulties for printers. The rush to meet the deadline was causing issues for some members, with efforts being made to obtain and distribute remaining supplies.
Following Emmanuel Macron’s announcement on June 9, printers were immediately inundated with requests. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), including Centr’Imprim in Issoudun, were working tirelessly to meet the tight deadlines, which were described as extremely challenging. The director of Centr’Imprim stated that they were awaiting validation of candidate ballots from the prefecture before beginning printing. With the ballots and candidate statements required to be delivered by 6 p.m. on Tuesday, there was less than a day available for printing, cutting, and packaging the ballots before they were sent to a transporter based four hours away in northern Eure-et-Loir.
In response to the time constraints, teams were expected to work throughout the weekend once the candidate materials had been validated by the prefectures. This posed challenges for some businesses that also printed newspapers, such as the case of Léonce-Antoine Deprez in Arras, who expressed concerns about meeting deadlines for clients. While some printing companies may face difficulties, many others believe they can adapt due to their ability to respond quickly to various orders, including political ones, as it is part of their core competency to deliver timely services.
The pressures of the accelerated printing schedule meant that the costs incurred by printing companies would likely increase as they worked on urgent orders. The additional labor and resources required to meet the tight deadlines would impact their bottom line. Some printers expressed concerns about potential delays in delivering the electoral materials to certain constituencies in time for the scheduled voting dates of June 30 and July 7. Despite the challenges faced, many printers were optimistic about their ability to adapt and ensure that the electoral materials were delivered on time.
