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PARIS:
French voters cast votes on Sunday to pick mayors and councillors in elections widely seen as a barometer of France’s political mood ahead of the high-stakes 2027 presidential race.
Marine Le Pen’s ascendant far-right party views next year’s contest as its strongest chance yet to take power, with centrist President Emmanuel Macron constitutionally barred from running again.
The elections in around 35,000 villages, towns and city boroughs are held over two rounds held on consecutive Sundays.
While nearly 90 percent of France’s communes are small rural constituencies where local elections are traditionally depoliticised, the races could nonetheless reveal key trends and dynamics, said political scientist Nonna Mayer.
“In large towns, national issues will matter more, and they can give some hints on the electoral dynamic of the main parties,” Mayer, who is affiliated with Sciences Po university and scientific research centre CNRS, told AFP.
Who wins cities like Paris, Lyon, Marseille and Nice will matter, she added.
Clarisse Bremaud, a 26-year-old exhibition producer, was among the voters trickling in and out of a polling station in central Paris.
“For me it’s important to take part in every election,” she told AFP.
“I feel it’s even more crucial today with what’s happening in France — particularly with the evolution of politics in France and the world.”
Historically, France’s major cities have been governed either by centre-left parties or the right-wing Republicans.
By contrast, Le Pen’s far-right National Rally, the hard-left party of firebrand Jean?Luc Melenchon and Macron’s centrists have struggled to establish a strong local footprint.
The National Rally (RN), which currently governs only one major city of more than 100,000 inhabitants, Perpignan, hopes to strengthen its local presence by capturing urban centres such as Toulon and Marseille, France’s secondlargest city.
A strong performance would mark an important milestone in the RN’s longstanding effort to gain broader acceptance in the political mainstream.
The anti-immigration party sees the elections as an opportunity to show it can govern at the local level.
