Socialist Emmanuel Gregoire wins Paris mayoral race

Gregoire led a coalition that included the old left, the Greens, and the Communists to seize the French capital.

The results of the countrywide municipal elections gave the traditional left and right their gains, and a decisive victory for the far right in the city of Nice, leading to the Paris mayoral race being won by Socialist Party leader Emmanuel Gregoire.

The run-off on Sunday marked the run-off of Gregoire in over 1500 communes in the French capital, and exit polls indicated that the rightist National Rally (RN) was ahead of Gregoire in almost every major southwestern city, including Marseille and Toulon.

Gregoire, the leader of a list that brought together the traditional left, the Greens and the Communists, won the coveted mayoralty with an estimated of 51 to 53 percent of the vote, according to pollsters, defeating Conservative opponent Rachida Dating who admitted defeat.

The 48-year-old son of a teacher and civil servant is rising to prominence, having been appointed deputy to the incumbent mayor and fellow Socialist, Anne Hidalgo. In his bid, Paris was supposed to be a city of refuge and a stronghold against the right and the far right as he had promised.

Socialist Mayor Benoit Payan is the second-largest city in the country, and Marseille was heading towards re-election with 56.3% of the vote in an Elabe poll conducted on BFM TV. This blow to RN occurred when one of the hard-left candidates in France Unbowed (LFI) withdrew to unite left-wing voters. 

The victories of Paris and Marseille were celebrated by socialist party leader Oliver Faure, who made his party an impregnable fort against the far right. “Only the left can prevent France from this regression”, he said.
An Elabe poll in Toulon indicated that centre-right candidate Josee Massi was leading at 53.5 per cent, with RN candidate Laure Lavalette conceding defeat. 

However, senior RN officials refuted the claim that the party’s defeat meant it had hit a glass ceiling ahead of next year’s presidential elections. In this municipal election, the National Rally and its contestants recorded the greatest infiltration in the entire history of the party, with Empire chief Jordan Bardella citing victories in local constituencies where it had never previously competed.

Bardella backed the anti-immigration party, which won re-election in the southern city of Perpignan in the first round, and smaller cities as well. On Sunday, polls showed that Eric Ciotti, a former mainstream conservative now an RN ally, won in Nice, France’s fifth-largest city.

According to TF1 and LCI TV, former Prime Minister Edouard Philippe was re-elected mayor of his hometown of Le Havre, giving a better-than-expected showing that would boost his hopes of becoming president in 2027. 

Centrist President Emmanuel Macron’s Ally, Philippe, a centre-right politician, delivered a speech with a distinctly national message, saying that his victory offered reason to be optimistic about France’s values and that extremes could be overcome. 

In France, by 5:00 p.m. local time (16:00 GMT), there was a 58% turnout on the mainland, up 4 points from 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic but 4 points less than in 2014, according to the Ministry of the Interior.