Voters in border regions of France and Germany went to the polls on Sunday in local and state elections, with a rightward swing in both neighbouring countries.

French voters in 1,580 communes went to the polls for the second round of municipal elections, while on the German side of the border, the Rhineland‑Palatinate state election took place.

While some incumbent French mayors were able to hold their positions, the election saw a historic breakthrough for the far-right Rassemblement National in other areas. Meanwhile, in Rhineland-Palatinate, the socialists lost control of the state after 35 years to the Christian Democrats.

A second round marked by several tragedies in France

According to information compiled by AFP, three people died at polling stations in France during the second round, in Saint-Étienne (Loire), Annecy (Haute-Savoie) and Carcassonne (Aude).

In Saint-Étienne, André Ardaille, a running mate of RN candidate Corentin Jousserand, died of a cardiac arrest. In Annecy, an 81-year-old voter died of a heart attack, while in Carcassonne, an 82-year-old woman was taken into emergency care after falling at a polling station and later died of a cardiac arrest in the ambulance.

Metz, Nancy and Thionville keep their mayors

In the French border region, the mayors of the main cities – Nancy, Thionville and Metz, all retained their posts.

François Grosdidier, an independent right candidate, retained his position as mayor of Metz. He won with 50.56% of the vote, ahead of the far-right RN candidate Étienne Anstett (17.63%), far-left LFI candidate Charlotte Leduc (17.41%) and socialist Bertrand Mertz (14.40%).

It was also a successful night for Mathieu Klein in Nancy: the socialist mayor took 49.68% of the vote, ahead of Laurent Hénart (Parti Radical), who received 39.74%, and Sarah Farghaly (LFI, 10.58%).

In Thionville, Pierre Cuny (Horizons) is back for another term. Cuny had already come out on top in the first round in Moselle’s second-largest city, and won again on Sunday, with 45.39% of the vote.

He was ahead of Lionel Bieder (independent right, 24.87%), Brigitte Vaïsse (independent left, 15.31%) and Yan Rutili (independent, 14.43%).

Two Moselle towns with more than 10,000 inhabitants fell to the far-right RN: Amnéville and Saint-Avold.

In Amnéville, the attempt to merge the lists of the three other candidates against Grégoire Laloux from the RN did not work: the former opposition councillor from Metz won against Danielle Calcari-Jean (58.50% to 41.50%).

In Saint-Avold, the RN’s Hervé Simon was elected with 43.29% of the vote, defeating both Tristan Atmania (35.12%) and outgoing mayor René Steiner (21.59%).

The RN also won in Val de Briey, with the election of Christophe Roos, who had already come out on top in the first round.

In Sarreguemines, however, the party of Jordan Bardella and Marine Le Pen failed to win. Its candidate, Pascal Jenft (42.42%) was defeated by outgoing mayor Marc Zingraff (indepedent right, 57.58%). In Creutzwald, the RN was also narrowly defeated.

In Forbach, the outgoing centre-right (Les Republicaines) mayor Alexandre Cassaro will be seeking a new term of office following his victory in the second round (53.69%), defeating both independent candidate Abdah Griffete and Éric Diligent (RN, 14.83%).

In Longwy, outgoing mayor Vincent Hamen was re-elected with a score of 47.57%, beating Mathieu Servagi (40.90%) and Thierry Alcaraz (11.52%).

Over the border in Germany, the socialists’ 35-year control of the Rhineland-Palatinate state parliament ended with victory for the centre-right CDU, the party of Chancellor Friedrich Merz.

The CDU relegated the centre-left SPD to second place, on 25.9% of the vote, a terrible outcome for the party which had led Rhineland-Palatinate since 1991.

The far-right AfD doubled its vote to 19.5%, propelling it into third spot – the party’s greatest success in Western Germany to date, as it is significantly more popular in the states of the former East Germany. The Greens finished fourth, on 7.9%.

Following the election, the CDU will have 39 seats in the state parliament, up by eight, while the SPD will have 32, down seven.

(This article is based on reporting from Virgule. Machine translated, with editing, adaptation and additional reporting by Alex Stevensson.)