The far-right National Rally failed in its bid to win the southern French city of Toulon in key municipal elections yesterday, several exit polls showed as voting ended, in what is set to be a major disappointment for Marine Le Pen’s party.
In Toulon, the RN scored 46.5 per cent of the votes, behind the centre-right candidate Josée Massi with 53.5pc, according to an Elabe poll for BFM TV.
Exit polls in bigger cities, including in Paris and Marseille, are expected later.
It is set to be a close race in Paris and Marseille.
The RN’s chances of winning the biggest prize it covets – Marseille – took a hit when hard-left candidate Sebastien Delogu of France Unbowed (LFI) withdrew from the second round out of concern that splitting the left’s vote could help the RN.
Elsewhere, former Prime Minister Edouard Philippe was re-elected mayor in his northern city of Le Havre, according to TF1 and LCI broadcasters, delivering a better-than-expected performance that boosts his hopes of running for president in 2027.
And LFI looked set to win in Roubaix, a city of nearly 100,000 in northern France, an Ifop-Fiducial poll for TF1, LCI and Sud Radio showed, in good news for a party that had so far not focused much on local elections.
The thousands of separate municipal ballots are often focused on very local issues and their outcome does not forecast who will win in the April 2027 presidential election.
But they show trends in popularity and in the type of alliances that can be struck in an increasingly fragmented political landscape.
French voters went to the polls yesterday to elect mayors in Paris, Marseille and more than 1,500 other cities and towns.
Heading nearly 35,000 municipalities – from major cities to villages with only a few dozen residents – mayors are France’s most trusted elected officials.
Many won enough votes to be elected in the first round last Sunday, but tight races in France’s biggest cities went to runoff elections.
A close race is also likely in Paris, where opinion polls show victory for either the conservatives or the left is within their margins of error.
In Paris, which has been run by the left since 2001, the Socialist candidate, Emmanuel Gregoire, was ahead in the first round.
But a far-right candidate decided to pull out of the runoff to help Rachida Dati, a conservative former justice minister, snatch the city away from the left, meaning it is now a very close race.
&uuid=(email))