Jordan Bardella, the head of France’s far-right the National Rally (RN) and a potential candidate in next year’s presidential race, has called on voters to back what he called his party’s “common sense and order” campaign in the final round of municipal elections next week.
As the first-round municipal election results trickled in on Sunday night, the anti-immigration RN held on to the biggest city it runs: Perpignan. Louis Aliot was re-elected in the first round as mayor of the city, which has a population of 121,000 and is close to the Spanish border.
The RN is now hoping it could also take another city, for example the southern coastal city of Toulon, which will go to a second-round runoff. But any success in Toulon will depend on whether other parties join to block the RN.
The party of the radical-left Jean-Luc Mélenchon, La France Insoumise (LFI), is also seeking to gain a foothold at a local level before Mélenchon is expected to make a fourth bid to be French president next year. The party, which is seeking to increase its local councillors, had strong results in the north of France in Lille and Roubaix, which will now go to second-round runoffs. Manuel Bompard, the LFI national coordinator, said the party was willing to create an “anti-fascist front” with other left parties to stop the RN making gains.
The French municipal elections are seen as a crucial test of the political temperature before next year’s presidential election.
The vote for mayors and councillors in 35,000 villages, towns and cities across France is focused on local issues including security, housing and refuse collection, and is very different from national elections.
But the two-round vote held on consecutive Sundays – particularly the ballot in large towns and cities – will be scrutinised for what it can reveal about party strategy and alliances in France’s increasingly fragmented political landscape before the 2027 presidential race.
Emmanuel Macron’s two terms in office end next year and there is uncertainty about which candidates will run for the presidency of the EU’s second-largest economy. Two years after Macron called a snap election in 2024, parliament remains divided, with no absolute majority, split between the left, far right and centrists.
After a record-low turnout at the last local elections in 2020 during the coronavirus pandemic, analysts were closely scrutinising the races to gauge possible voter disengagement.
According to estimates from several polling organisations, overall turnout was low – at between 56% and 58.5% compared with 63.55% at the equivalent elections in 2014.
“Apart from 2020, we have reached a record low under the Fifth Republic, [the political system since 1958],” François Kraus of the IFOP polling institute told Agence France-Presse.
“Public apathy is growing,” added Adélaïde Zulfikarpasic of pollster Ipsos BVA, saying it was “not good news for our democracy”.
Historically, France’s major cities have been governed either by centre-left groupings, including the Socialists or Les Républicains. Green-led coalitions won significant cities in the last municipal elections in 2020, including Lyon, but are under pressure as they try to hold on to their gains.
In the northern port of Le Havre, Edouard Philippe, the former prime minister who intends to run as a centre-right presidential candidate next year, had a strong first-round score and will now face a second-round runoff. Philippe had suggested that if he did not win the city he has run since 2014, his candidacy for the presidential race would be in question.
In a speech on Sunday night, Philippe said he had “humility” and was there to “listen” to voters “neighbourhood by neighbourhood”.
Large cities such as Paris, Marseille and Lyon will go to a second-round runoff next Sunday.
Many mayoral candidates had distanced themselves from political parties, reflecting voters’ exasperation with politics and the deadlock in parliament. A large number of mayors, particularly in villages, stood as independents.
