Socialist Party candidate Emmanuel Grégoire took a commanding lead in the first round of Paris mayoral elections on Sunday, surging ahead of conservative former minister Rachida Dati, according to three exit polls.
“The women and men of Paris have put us clearly in the lead in this first round,” Grégoire told supporters as the first projections trickled in.
Grégoire, leading a left-wing alliance that includes the Greens and Communists, picked up 36.4% of the vote, well ahead of Dati on 24.8%, according to an Ipsos-BVA-Cesi poll.
The former deputy mayor took 37% of the vote to Dati 25.2%, according to an Ifop-Fiducial poll. A third pollster put the gap at 10 points.
The three polling firms had centre-right challenger Pierre-Yves Bournazel and hard-left candidate Sophia Chikirou clearing the 10% threshold to qualify for the second round, while two out of three also included the far right’s Sarah Knafo.
Whether the latter candidates drop out of the race or form alliances with the two frontrunners could determine the outcome of the French municipal elections’ marquee race.
Read moreFar right polls strongly in French mayoral elections seen as launchpad for 2027 presidential race
Grégoire, a lawmaker in the National Assembly, has ruled out joining forces with Chikirou of the hard-left France Unbowed (LFI) party, whereas Dati has repeatedly urged Bournazel to rally behind here and avoid splitting the centre-right vote.
The high-stakes elections follows 25 years of transformational rule under successive left-wing mayors Bertrand Delanoë and Anne Hidalgo, who have turned the polluted metropolis into a tree-lined city of bike lanes and pedestrian streets.
Grégoire has vowed to pursue the capital’s green revolution, while promising a “change of method” after Hidalgo’s polarising leadership.
But the incumbent left also faces anger over roadwork disruptions, mounting debt and a scandal involving child sexual abuse allegations by school monitors in nursery and primary schools.
Dati, who recently resigned as culture minister to focus on the Paris race, has challenges of her own. She goes on trial in September over allegations of corruption and abuse of power relating to her past mandate as European lawmaker – allegations she denies.
Read moreThe race for Paris: Why France’s capital has likely gone green for good
While Grégoire’s first-round lead puts him in a commanding position ahead of the March 22 runoff, Chikirou’s estimated 13% of the vote creates a potential headache for the Socialist frontrunner, threatening to split the left-wing vote.
On Sunday night, Chikirou said she was “waiting for a call” from Grégoire to join forces in an “anti-fascist front” in the second round, barring which she will keep her LFI list on the ballot.
But the Socialist candidate will be weary of alienating centrists in his camp and of contradicting his repeated pledges not to strike alliances with Mélenchon’s party.
It’s a quandary shared by many in his camp following Sunday’s first-round results.
With its strong local footprint, the Socialist Party had been counting on the municipal elections to regain to reassert its dominance over the left and sideline the radical left, which had traditionally fared poorly in local polls.
Instead, LFI candidates largely exceeded expectations in cities across the country, matching or beating candidates from the mainstream left in places like Toulouse, Roubaix, Limoges and Saint-Denis – and leaving the Socialists in a bind.
