French local elections measure far-right support ahead of presidential vote

French voters head to the polls on Sunday (15 March) to elect their mayors in a closely watched ballot seen as a test of the strength of the far-right and the resilience of mainstream parties ahead of next year's presidential vote.

Heading nearly 35,000 municipalities- from major cities to villages with only a few dozen residents- mayors are France's most trusted elected officials.

Local results can shape national momentum, especially when they take place so close to the  presidential election, which opinion polls show the far-right National Rally (RN) could potentially win.

A test for the National Rally

The anti-immigration, Eurosceptic RN has so far struggled to make meaningful gains in municipal elections.

With candidates in several hundred municipalities, it does not expect a landslide, but it hopes to showcase growing popularity and clinch a few big wins that would further boost its presidential campaign.

"If the people of Marseille make a brave choice ... it will embolden and enlighten the French on the choice they will make next year," Franck Allisio, the RN candidate in France's second-biggest city said. 

Allisio is tied in first-round polls with incumbent Socialist Mayor Benoît Payan, providing the RN with a once-unthinkable shot at power in a major French city.

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Focus on security

Thousands of separate municipal ballots often focus on very local issues. But opinion polls show security is voters' main priority in that vote, very much in line with the RN's law-and-order focus.

Among the bigger cities the RN is targeting is the southern city of Toulon, with a population of 180,000. It could also win in Menton, a Riviera town where former President Nicolas Sarkozy's son Louis is a candidate backed by centrist parties.

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Two rounds

A second round will be held on 22 March in all cities where no single list wins more than 50% of the vote.

While there may be more scope to draw lessons from the second round than the first, all of the election carries high stakes for parties with the April 2027 presidential ballot approaching.

"People want to turn the page and they want to turn it with us," Perpignan's RN mayor Louis Aliot said.

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French Elections Menton Paris Security socialists France mayors Alliances