Cancelled semesters, postponed weddings and thousands of called-up volunteers.
In France, municipalities are struggling to organise parliamentary elections at record speed – simultaneously with school leavers' parties and the Olympics on the doorstep.
On 29 June, Laurence Durand-Nicard was supposed to get married at the town hall in La Guerche-sur-l'Aubois. But now the municipality has cancelled all planned events due to the parliamentary election to be held on 30 June and 7 July. Instead, Laurence has been offered to get married in a tent on the football pitch.
I don't care at all about the election, I'm shocked that it has such consequences, she tells the news agency AFP.
Record short time
When President Emmanuel Macron dissolved the National Assembly and called for new elections on 9 June, following the defeat of his party to the far-right in the EU parliamentary election the same day, it created panic in many of the country's municipalities. In a record short time – 20 days – the mayors of the country's 577 electoral districts must organise elections simultaneously with the start of the summer holiday period and many events related to the Olympics in Paris planned throughout the country.
I've spent the whole morning trying to get hold of people who can work on election days, says Murielle Fabre, mayor of Lampertheim in north-eastern France, to TT.
Many are on holiday or have already planned other events.
In Bonneval west of Paris, the municipality is forced to change the planned route of the Olympic torch relay passing through the town on 7 July.
The prefecture doesn't want to move the polling stations, so we're changing the Olympic torch relay route through the town, says Mayor Eric Jubert to AFP.
Warning of difficulties
In Troyes in the eastern part of the country, the municipality is trying to figure out how voters will be able to get to the polling stations while the Tour de France cycling event passes through the town, writes the newspaper Le Courrier des Maires.
The organisation for France's mayors, AMF, has gone out and warned of the difficulties for municipalities.
"The sudden decision by the President of the Republic to call for new elections with historically short notice raises strong concern among many mayors", writes AMF in a press release, adding that "the executive power" seems to be unaware of the significant financial burden on municipalities that the elections entail.
In Lampertheim, the election means extra costs that will affect the town's budget.
It will be overtime costs for the municipality's staff and also all the material that needs to be printed, says Mayor Fabre, who also has another concern:
There is great anxiety about the outcome, what policy the country will pursue after the election.
