{"id":447698,"date":"2026-03-16T13:18:31","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T12:18:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2026\/03\/16\/francia-al-primo-turno-delle-comunali-vince-la-polarizzazione-tra-rassemblement-national-e-le-diverse-anime-della-sinistra\/"},"modified":"2026-03-16T14:19:05","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T13:19:05","slug":"frances-local-elections-polarisation-between-rn-and-the-left-dominates-first-round","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2026\/03\/16\/frances-local-elections-polarisation-between-rn-and-the-left-dominates-first-round\/","title":{"rendered":"France\u2019s local elections: polarisation between RN and the left dominates first round"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Brussels \u2013 The first round of local elections in France has provided a clear snapshot of the political t<strong>ensions that will shape the country\u2019s path towards the 2027 presidential elections<\/strong>. The results across the 35,000 municipalities that went to the polls show a <strong>weakening of President Emmanuel Macron\u2019s centrist coalition<\/strong>,&nbsp;in favour of a polarisation between the radical right Rassemblement National (RN) and the various strands of the left.<\/p>\n<p>The Rassemblement National secured a significant victory in Perpignan, where the outgoing mayor <strong>Louis Aliot was re-elected in the first round<\/strong>, consolidating the party\u2019s hold on the only major city governed by Marine Le Pen\u2019s party to date. In Nice, the picture is equally favourable for the far right: <strong>Eric Ciotti,<\/strong> leader of the Union of the Right for the Republic and a close ally of the RN, <strong>secured over 43 per cent of the vote<\/strong>, clearly outpacing the outgoing mayor Christian Estrosi, a representative of the centrist-Macronist camp, who remained at 31 per cent. In Toulon too, victory seems within reach, with RN spokesperson <strong>Laure Lavalette leading with 42 per cent of the vote<\/strong>, ahead of Jos\u00e9e Massi of the right-wing civic list. In Marseille, however, the race remains wide open: the RN candidate <strong>Franck Allisio secured around 35 per cent<\/strong>, leaving the race in what is essentially <strong>a technical tie<\/strong> with the outgoing left-wing mayor, the independent <strong>Beno\u00eet Payan<\/strong>, backed by the Socialists.\n<\/p>\n<p>For the moderate left, <strong>Paris<\/strong> remains the main stronghold. <strong>Emmanuel Gr\u00e9goire<\/strong>, the Socialist Party candidate and former deputy to the outgoing mayor Anne Hidalgo, <strong>secured almost 38 per cent of the vote<\/strong>, pulling ahead of Rachida Dati, the Republicans (LR) candidate, who remained at 25 per cent. However, to win in the second round, Gr\u00e9goire will have to seek a difficult alliance with Sophia Chikirou, the candidate for France Insoumise (LFI), who secured 12 per cent. This alliance is complicated by the sharp differences between Olivier Faure\u2019s Socialists and Jean-Luc M\u00e9lenchon\u2019s radical left, exacerbated by recent controversies concerning anti-fascist groups in Lyon. While the moderate left holds its ground in the major cities, LFI has scored a historic victory in Saint-Denis, snatching the council from the Socialists and becoming the dominant force in the \u00cele-de-France region\u2019s main centre after the capital.\n<\/p>\n<p>Against this backdrop of a general retreat for the centrists, the only one smiling is <strong>former Prime Minister Edouard Philippe<\/strong>. Re-elected as mayor of Le Havre with over <strong>43 per cent<\/strong> of the vote, Philippe has cemented his leadership of the Horizons party and, above all, his future bid for the presidency. His success stands in stark contrast to the decline of Macron\u2019s official candidates, who in many provinces lost votes to right-wing lists. Attention now turns to the run-offs, where Jordan Bardella\u2019s strategy of &#8220;reaching out&#8221; to right-wing moderates will test the left\u2019s ability to regroup despite internal divisions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The results across the 35,000 municipalities where elections were held confirm the weakening of President Emmanuel Macron\u2019s centrist coalition<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7896,"featured_media":412514,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25681],"tags":[26261,33378,32656,33379,26260,28156,28462,30214,33380,33381,33382,26584,33383,28848,33384,33385,31970],"class_list":["post-447698","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-edouard-philippe","tag-elezioni-comunali","tag-emmanuel-gregoire","tag-emmanuel-macron-en","tag-eric-ciotti-en","tag-jean-luc-melenchon-en","tag-la-france-insoumise-en","tag-laure-lavalette","tag-louis-aliot","tag-marsiglia","tag-rassemblement-national-en","tag-nizza","tag-paris-en","tag-perpignan","tag-primo-turno","tag-tolone-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447698","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7896"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=447698"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447698\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":447699,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447698\/revisions\/447699"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/412514"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=447698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=447698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=447698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}