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The second round of local elections in France is being held today

2026-03-22 08:59:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

Voting is underway in France for the second round of local elections, seen as a harbinger of next year's presidential race. Most of France's roughly 35,000 communes elected their councils in the first round last Sunday, but in municipalities where the race is tighter, including most large urban areas, the second round will be decisive, with electoral alliances playing a key role.

In addition to showing voter sentiment ahead of the 2027 elections, which the far-right National Rally (RN) sees as its best chance yet to take power, with Emmanuel Macron expected to resign, local elections could suggest what tactical alliances might be formed at the national level.

One of the closest races is in the French capital, where the mayoralty has been held by the Socialist Party (SP) since 2001 and the center-left candidate, Emmanuel Gregoire, led the first round with 38%, ahead of conservative Rachida Dati with 25.5%.

Three others qualified for the second round. However, a moderate right-winger, Pierre-Yves Bournazel, has merged his list with Dati's, while far-right Sarah Knafo has withdrawn - potentially uniting the capital's right-wing vote.

On the left, Gregoire has refused to join Sophia Chikirou of Jean-Luc Melenchon's radical left-wing party, France Unbowed (LFI), which much of the mainstream left has refused to join due to allegations of extremism, anti-Semitism and violence.

The center-left candidate therefore faces a three-way race. The dynamic is very different in Marseille, France's second-largest city, where the far-right National Rally (RN) candidate, Franck Allisio, finished barely one percentage point behind the outgoing center-left mayor, Benoit Payan, in the first round.

Like Gregoire in Paris, Payan ruled out an alliance with the LFI, but its candidate, Sebastien Delogu, withdrew, saying the RN must be kept out at all costs. And a conservative candidate, despite calls from the RN for her to resign, has remained in the race.

The RN, the largest single party in the French parliament, also has high hopes in Toulon and the Riviera city of Nice, where its ally Eric Ciotti, who is running as a joint candidate for his breakaway conservative party and the RN, is in the lead.

Bruno Retailleau, the national leader of the main conservative party, Les Republicains (LR), has refused to support the outgoing center-right mayor of Nice against Ciotti, potentially paving the way for a conservative and far-right electoral alliance next year.

In some cities, the radical left is seen as the force to be resisted, with the PS joining its list with Macron's centrists in Strasbourg to counter a threat from the LFI, and the Socialists joining with the Greens in Lille to try to block the radical left party.

But elsewhere, local alliances between the main and radical left could succeed in cities such as Avignon, Brest, Nantes and Toulouse, France's fourth-largest city, while the LFI could win the northern city of Roubaix on its own.

A final key race to watch is in the port city of Le Havre, where the mayor, former prime minister Edouard Philippe, is in a good position to keep his job and could become a leading presidential contender against RN's Jordan Bardella or Marine Le Pen.

Polling stations will open at 8 a.m. local time and close in major cities at 8 p.m., with results expected in the evening. /CNA