Mayoral races in balance as voting opens in last round of French local elections | France
In France, voting continues in the second round of local elections, which are seen as a precursor to next year’s presidential race, with cities such as Paris and Marseille in the balance and both the radical left and the far right hoping to win.
Most of France’s more than 35,000 communes elected their councils in the first round last Sunday, but in tighter municipalities, including large urban areas, the second round will be decisive, in which electoral alliances will play a key role.
Although local elections are often decided at least in part by local issues, they could hold important lessons for national votes, analysts say. “They create momentum, generate support and create a narrative,” said Frédéric Dabi of the Ifop polling institute.
Local elections could provide insight into what tactical alliances could be formed at the national level, as well as showing voter sentiment ahead of the 2027 elections, which the far-right National Rally (RN) sees as its best chance yet to seize power now that Emmanuel Macron has resigned.
One of the toughest races took place in the French capital, where the town hall has been held by the Socialist Party (PS) since 2001, where center-left candidate Emmanuel Grégoire finished the first round with 38% of the votes and conservative Rachida Dati received 25.5%.
Three more people qualified for the second round. But moderate right-winger Pierre-Yves Bournazel has merged his list with Dati’s, while far-righter Sarah Knafo has also withdrawn, potentially uniting the capital’s right-wing vote.
On the left, Grégoire refused to join forces with Sophia Chikirou of Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s radical left France Indomitable (LFI) party; Much of the mainstream left refused to work with them due to allegations of extremism, antisemitism and violence.
The centre-left candidate therefore faces a three-way race; if he wins he will ease the mainstream left’s reluctance to work with the LFI, or if he loses he will be hailed by the right as evidence of the potential for a wider right-wing alliance.
The dynamic is very different in Marseille, France’s second largest city; here, far-right National Rally (RN) candidate Franck Allisio finished the first round just one percentage point behind outgoing center-left mayor Benoît Payan.
Like Grégoire in Paris, Payan rejected the alliance with the LFI; but its candidate, Sébastien Delogu, withdrew, saying that the RN should be kept out at all costs. And a conservative candidate remained in the race despite the RN calling for him to withdraw.
The RN, the largest single party in the French parliament, also has high hopes for Toulon and the Riviera city of Nice, where its own separatist conservative party and its ally Éric Ciotti, who is running as a joint candidate for the RN, are frontrunners.
Bruno Retailleau, the national leader of the main conservative party Les Républicains (LR), has refused to back Nice’s outgoing centre-right mayor against Ciotti, potentially paving the way for a conservative and far-right electoral alliance next year.
In some cities, the radical left is seen as a force to resist; The PS is joining its own list with Macron’s centrists in Strasbourg to fend off the LFI threat, and the Socialists are joining with the Greens in Lille to try to block the radical left party.
But elsewhere local alliances between the mainstream and the radical left could achieve success in cities such as Avignon, Brest, Nantes and Toulouse, France’s fourth largest city, while the LFI could win the northern city of Roubaix on its own.
The last major race to watch will take place in the port city of Le Havre; The mayor here, former prime minister Édouard Philippe, is well positioned to retain his post and could become a leading presidential contender against RN’s Jordan Bardella or Marine Le Pen.
Voting centers will open at 08:00 in the morning local time and close at 20:00 in the evening in major cities, and the results are expected in the evening.
