The French far-right National Rally (RN) failed to win any major city in nationwide municipal elections, a setback that gives hope to mainstream parties ahead of next year's presidential election.
Marine Le Pen's nationalist party lost out in big target cities including Marseille and Toulon, although an ally, Eric Ciotti, who heads his own staunchly conservative UDR party, won in Nice, France's fifth-largest city.
The municipal votes were a test of both the depth of the far right's support base a year ahead of the presidential election, and the resilience of mainstream parties in a fragmented political landscape.
Opinion polls project both Le Pen and her young protege Jordan Bardella would perform strongly in the 2027 race to replace centrist French President Emmanuel Macron. Le Pen is awaiting a ruling in her appeal against an embezzlement conviction before deciding whether she will run for a fourth time.
The 35,000 separate municipal ballots typically focus on local issues, so the outcome does not offer a reliable forecast of who will succeed Macron.
But they show trends in popularity and in the type of alliances that can be struck in an increasingly fragmented political landscape. Senior politicians from all parties were quick to claim Sunday's outcome was good news for them.
In Paris, Socialist Party candidate Emmanuel Gregoire fended off a challenge from conservative former minister Rachida Dati to ensure the French capital remains in left-wing hands.
Glass ceiling
Senior RN officials rejected suggestions the party's defeat in Toulon showed it had hit a “glass ceiling” ahead of the presidential election, saying it had won dozens of local constituencies where it previously had no presence.
“The National Rally and its candidates have achieved, in this municipal election, the biggest breakthrough in its entire history,” Mr Bardella said.
But the RN's failure to win larger cities, and in particular in Marseille, its most coveted prize, may show limits to its growing popularity.
Meanwhile, with wins in Paris and Marseille, the Socialist Party, long weakened nationally, saw reasons for hope.
“Paris will be the heart of the resistance” to any union of the mainstream right and far-right, Mr Gregoire said after he crossed Paris on a bicycle in a nod to the left's green policies in the French capital.
Senior politicians on the mainstream right said results show they need to be united to win – especially in next year's presidential election.
Former Prime Minister Edouard Philippe was re-elected mayor in his port city of Le Havre, in a boost to his hopes of running for president in 2027.
Mr Philippe, a centre-right politician who served as prime minister under Mr Macron, said “there were reasons to be hopeful” in the values of France and that the extremes can be beaten.
'Beautiful face'
In the second-biggest city, Marseille, the incumbent, Socialist Mayor Benoit Payan, was re-elected with 54 per cent of the votes. He had been neck-and-neck with the RN in the first round and was boosted after his hard-left rival pulled out of the run-off to prevent a far-right victory.
“This city, which some believed lost, showed its most beautiful face, showed that it was capable of resisting,” said Payan.
The Socialist Party said it had also beaten Francois Bayrou, a centre-right former prime minister of Macron, in the city of Pau.
The hard-left France Unbowed (LFI) won in the northern city of Roubaix, a city of nearly 100,000 and in the Saint-Denis suburb of Paris. The party put forward its highest number of candidates in local elections.
“Traditional parties are losing ground,” Manuel Bompard, of LFI, said.
