France goes to the polls on 15 and 22 March to elect 34,875 mayors, in a vote seen as a key test ahead of next year's presidential election. The two-round ballot will measure the strength of the far-right National Rally (RN) and showcase what types of alliances could emerge in a fragmented landscape.
Why French municipal elections matter
Heading nearly 35,000 communes – from major cities to villages with only a few dozen residents – mayors are France's most trusted elected officials, seen by voters as the political figures closest to their daily concerns.
Local results can also shape national momentum and reveal which themes resonate with voters, especially when they take place just over a year before the next presidential election. Recent polls show security, local taxation and access to healthcare are voters' main concerns.
What’s at stake for the RN
The anti-immigration, eurosceptic RN party, which has so far struggled to make meaningful gains at a local level, is treating the March votes as a critical step toward building momentum for the 2027 presidential poll.
It hopes to consolidate towns it already controls – such as Perpignan, Menton and Henin-Beaumont – and expand into larger urban areas. The party is fielding about 600 lists, up from about 500 in the previous 2020 local elections.
Currently, only 13 mayors belong to, or are backed by, the RN. Perpignan is the only city of over 100,000 inhabitants run by the far-right party. Incumbent RN mayor Louis Aliot has made security the centrepiece of his administration and is pitching a simple message of more police, more cameras and more order.
One key question ahead of the 2027 presidential vote is what alliances the RN will strike with other parties between the two rounds. The French tradition known as front républican – whereby parties club together in the second round to block the far right – may not hold, with a recent poll indicating 63 percent of voters prefer blocking hard-left France Unbowed (LFI) over RN.
In a sign of how important this election is for the RN, 33 out of 119 of its members of parliament are candidates in the municipal elections.
Since municipal councillors indirectly elect senators, these elections are also a way for RN to get more representation in the upper house, where it holds just three seats.
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Which cities and parties to watch
- Paris is a key battleground, with six candidates running for office. It has had a Socialist mayor since 2001 but former culture minister Rachida Dati aspires to take back the city for the conservative Republicans (LR) party.
- Marseille is a long-time conservative city which the left won in the last ballot in 2020, and which all main parties, including the RN, are fighting over.
- The RN is also targeting Toulon, a city of 180,000 in southern France and which is home to Europe's largest naval base. RN governed the city from 1995 to 2001 when the party was known as the National Front.
- The Greens and their left-wing allies did well in the last municipal elections in 2020, winning control of major cities including Lyon, Strasbourg and Bordeaux. However, the left is now weakened nationally and a key issue will be whether the Greens can hang on to those cities, and the Socialists keep control of cities they won last time such as Nantes and Montpellier.
- The hard-left France Unbowed, which like the RN has never been strong in local elections, is also hoping to make gains, including in the Seine-Saint-Denis area where it has several members of parliament.
- The conservative Republicans (LR) have lost heavily in the last national elections but have long been strong in municipal elections. The party, along with its allies (DVD, UDC) secured around 12,000 mayorships in the last municipals.
- President Emmanuel Macron's party and its centrist allies performed poorly in 2020, winning no more than 1,000 mayoral seats, and no city with more than 100,000 inhabitants. The potential for an anti-government vote is therefore limited.
- Menton, a quiet Riviera town popular with retirees, is set to attract attention. Louis Sarkozy, the son of former president Nicolas Sarkozy, is running for election there.
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Outcomes hard to predict
With nearly 35,000 separate elections, many of which are focused on local issues and are not reviewed by pollsters, the outcomes are hard to predict, though surveys do show that security, housing and local taxes are among key issues for voters.
Another factor making these elections hard to predict is how they work. A list that wins an absolute majority in the first round takes control of the municipality. Failing that, all lists with 10 percent or more go through to the second round. Those with at least 5 percent can merge with larger lists. This system often leads to three- or four-way runoffs, making the second round quite unpredictable.
There could also be an impact from the killing of far-right activist Quentin Deranque, who was beaten to death in February in Lyon in a fight with alleged hard-left activists. The arrest of 11 suspects, including two parliamentary aides to LFI, has fuelled criticism of that party.
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When are the results due?
Voting starts at 8am on 15 March and closes between 6pm and 7pm depending on the city. In most medium to large cities, there will be a second round on 22 March. Voting times are the same. Exit polls are usually announced during the evening.
(with Reuters)
