The French extreme right of the National Rally has not achieved the support it expected in the municipal elections that were held this Sunday throughout France. Neither in Marseille nor in Nimes nor in Toulon, the three large cities that he aspired to govern, has he managed to win the mayor’s office. Meanwhile, the Socialist Party retains the country’s two largest cities, Marseille and Paris. In the capital, the socialist Emmanuel Grégoire clearly defeated the conservative former Minister of Culture Rachida Dati.
France held the second round of the elections this Sunday with much of the attention focused on the main cities, political laboratories where parties test electoral strategies ahead of 2027, which is shaping up to be a decisive electoral year.
After the historic results in the last legislative and European elections of 2024, Marine Le Pen’s party, National Rally (RN), arrived at these municipal elections with the aim of advancing its local implementation process and continuing to wear down the cordon sanitaire that isolates it from the rest of the political formations.
Victory in a new large city – since 2020 they have governed in Perpignan – would have supported the normalization strategy of the far-right formation and confirmed its possibilities for 2027 (it historically obtains worse results in the urban electorate).
One of the lessons of these municipal elections is that the party of Jordan Bardella and Marine Le Pen has not managed, for the moment, to escape this cordon sanitaire. Bardella had extended his hand to “the sincere right” in view of this Sunday’s vote. But the truth is that, for the moment, the Gaullist right and the center-right refuse to agree with RN.
And the left-wing parties continue to mobilize wherever they have options to prevent the victory of the Lepenist extreme right (in Marseille the rebellious candidate withdrew in favor of the socialist).
As a consequence, Le Pen’s party has failed in its attempt to win the mayorships of Nimes and Toulon, despite the fact that these cities are in territories where RN achieves some of its best results in all national elections since its candidates came in the lead in the first round.
The only consolation of the night for the French far right was Éric Ciotti’s victory in Nice. A turncoat from the Gaullist party Los Republicanos, Ciotti allied himself with Le Pen in 2024 and created his own party (Right-wing Union for the Republic) that ran in the municipal elections as Le Pen’s satellite. After a particularly angry campaign against the center-right mayor Christian Estrosi, Ciotti benefited from the non-withdrawal of the environmentalist candidate, who put her two rivals on the same level.
Although the Lepenist extreme right did not meet its objectives, the president of the party, Jordan Bardella, wanted to send a message of optimism. “Tonight is a night of victory and hope, RN has achieved the greatest advance in its entire history,” he stated, to underline the victory in medium-sized cities and that of its allies in Nice. “At the end of the second round, we can count dozens of new victories, in Carcassonne, Liévin, Tarascon, La Flèche, La Seyne-sur-Mer, Nice and Saint-Avold. In Marseille, as everywhere, RN establishes itself as the main force of the opposition, the only bulwark against the extreme left.”
In these elections, which are held every six years, any candidate who receives more than 10% of the votes is classified for the second round, making possible multiple triangular, quadrangular duels or even between more candidates. A context in which mergers of lists to group electorates or candidates who refuse to run play a crucial role in the election of mayors, especially in large cities.
Left Unit Lists
Before the first round, the Socialist Party (PS) aspired to impose itself as the first progressive formation and also to demonstrate that it can win by closing alliances with Ecologists and Communists, but without France Insoumise (LFI). The PS wanted to move towards the formation of a grand progressive coalition without Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s party.
But the good results of LFI forced many socialist candidates to change their discourse and seek the support of the insumisos to win.
LFI coordinator Manuel Bompard on Sunday claimed the party’s victories in cities such as Roubaix. “The advance of the LFI lists, already observed in the first round, is confirmed, expanded and reinforced,” he assured. “Tonight we have shown that nothing can resist popular mobilization,” he added, referring to the 2027 presidential election. “Next year, the new France can sweep away Macrony and its policies of disgrace.”
However, the left’s balance was not completely positive. In two important cities, Toulouse and Limoges, the LFI candidates had arrived ahead of the socialists and had presented themselves as heads of unitary lists of the left, aspiring to make these two capitals the first to have a rebellious mayor. In both cities the moderate right won, as it also did in Brest and Besançon.
“We continue to be, now more than ever, the main local political force in France,” said the president of the Republicans party, Bruno Retailleau, which claims the largest number of mayors (although most of the most populated cities have progressive mayors). “France is not condemned to a false dilemma between the ideologues of LFI and the demagogues of the National Rally.”
Beyond the control of the city councils, with the municipal elections the parties had another important objective: the Senate elections next September which, like every three years, will renew a part of their seats. In France, this election is carried out by indirect suffrage through a college of major electors, made up mostly of local representatives (mayors, councillors, regional deputies), which directly links the two votes.
Francia Insumisa does not have any senators today and the National Group only has three, but their implementation work in these local elections should help them grow next fall.
Macron, accused of influencing Paris
On the other hand, if six years ago the French press spoke of a “green wave” due to the excellent results of Europe Ecology-The Greens throughout the country, in these elections the environmentalists are, along with the Macronists, the two political forces with a more negative dynamic (although the Greens surprised and were able to retain the mayorship of Lyon). In particular, the party that Emmanuel Macron founded, Renaissance, which in anticipation had opted for a minimalist strategy.
However, the discretion of the presidential party and the Government in the campaign contrasts with the involuntary emergence of Emmanuel Macron in the race for mayor of Paris. The socialist candidate, Emmanuel Grégoire, accused Macron of having personally intervened “through intermediaries” to facilitate the withdrawal of Sarah Knafo, a far-right candidate, qualified for the second round of the elections in the capital.
Grégoire’s team accuses the president of having transmitted a message to the conservative businessman Vincent Bolloré, close to Sarah Knafo whom Bolloré’s media frequently invites. Macron would also have participated in pressuring the centrist candidate to merge his list with that of the conservative Rachida Dati. All this with the intention of favoring the victory of this candidate, who until recently was Minister of Culture, and who according to the French media has the favor of the president and his wife.
In any case, in Paris the unity strategy of Dati’s right has not worked and the candidate has barely improved the result she achieved in the first round. In his speech after the victory, Grégoire claimed: “Parisians have sent a message to Jordan Bardella, Marine Le Pen and Sarah Knafo. Paris is not and will never be a city of the extreme right.”
Source: www.eldiario.es
