{"id":835749,"date":"2026-03-19T07:33:16","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T07:33:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/835749\/"},"modified":"2026-03-19T07:33:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T07:33:16","slug":"unpleasant-surprises-will-key-french-cities-elect-far-right-mayors-the-far-right-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/835749\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Unpleasant surprises\u2019: Will key French cities elect far-right mayors? | The Far Right News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Paris, France \u2013 <\/strong>France heads to the polls on Sunday for local elections to usher in mayors and city council members, in a final round of voting.<\/p>\n

The municipal elections, which come a year before France\u2019s presidential vote, offer a glimpse of the country\u2019s political landscape.<\/p>\n

Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list<\/p>\n

The first round on Sunday showed France\u2019s far-right party, the National Rally, performing slightly less well than predicted. But it still made gains in key southern cities, including Nice, Toulon and Marseille.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe results are worse than expected for the National Rally, and the far right in general, because their goal was to establish a foothold and win medium-sized cities, to scale up, but that doesn\u2019t seem to be happening,\u201d Jean-Francois Poupelin, a journalist at Marsactu in Marseille, told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn the other hand, they\u2019ve already increased the number of municipalities they will run, compared to 2020.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the last mayoral race, the far right held a majority in 17 municipalities. Sunday\u2019s results indicate victories in 24 municipalities. Far-right parties are also leading in 60 other municipalities.<\/p>\n

Nice and Toulon are the two largest cities that look poised to elect far-right mayors.<\/p>\n

\u2018We might be in for a few unpleasant surprises\u2019<\/p>\n

In Marseille, incumbent mayor Benoit Payan is locked in a run-off with far-right National Rally candidate Franck Allisio.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe might be in for a few unpleasant surprises,\u201d Poupelin said. \u201cWe might see major cities like Nice and Toulon swing the other way. Since [left-wing party France Unbowed] LFI recently withdrew in Marseille, we\u2019re hoping the city won\u2019t swing right.\u201d<\/p>\n

Abstention is another big headline.<\/p>\n

Voter turnout in the first round was 57 percent, the second-lowest in the history of France\u2019s Fifth Republic, after the 2020 election, which was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, according to data from the Ministry of the Interior.<\/p>\n

In Marseille,\u00a0\u201cvoter turnout was low, especially in working-class neighbourhoods \u2026 where [left-wing party France Unbowed] LFI expected to do much better\u201d, said Poupelin. \u201cAbstention will be a key issue in both the second round of the municipal elections and the presidential election, because voter abstention generally works in the National Rally\u2019s favour.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Real, significant gains\u2019<\/p>\n

Baptiste Colin, a 31-year-old theatre production assistant in Marseille, told Al Jazeera, \u201cA lot of people around me didn\u2019t vote. There\u2019s a lack of interest.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMany didn\u2019t understand these elections because there were new rules. For example, in Marseille, we had to vote for the arrondissement mayor and then for the city mayor. Second, with the National Rally\u2019s strong showing in the polls, people felt like they already knew the results.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Colin, the close mayoral race is concerning.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m obviously a bit alarmed, especially in Marseille, by the rise of the National Rally, because these are real, significant gains,\u201d Colin said. \u201cThe far right is effectively becoming the new right.<\/p>\n

\u201cMarseille is a classic example of this, where the centre-right, which used to be strong, is now collapsing, handing all its votes over to the National Rally.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"FranckFranck Allisio, Marseille mayoral candidate for the Rassemblement National (National Rally \u2013 RN) party, votes in the first round of the French mayoral election at a polling station in Marseille, France, March 15, 2026 [Manon Cruz\/Reuters]<\/p>\n

The traditional right is disintegrating across much of France, said Rim-Sarah Alouane, legal scholar and an associate researcher in public law at the University Toulouse Capitole.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy main concern is the normalisation of the far right with the traditional right,\u201d Alouane told Al Jazeera. \u201cWe are witnessing an evolving relationship between the traditional right-wing party and the far right. In several municipalities, the results suggest a growing permeability between these two political spaces.<\/p>\n

Although voters have different considerations for municipal elections and presidential votes, the results so far speak to larger trends in France\u2019s political landscape.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe 2026 municipal elections, we can widely interpret as an early test before the next presidential cycle. The first round of results shows a political system in transition, fragmented and territorially polarised. No single political force appears capable of dominating the national arena,\u201d Alouane said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first round of the elections does not simply reflect local dynamics. It reveals deep transformation within the French party system itself, and clearly offers some sort of early indication of the political reconfiguration that may shape national politics in the year to come.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although the far right did not achieve the massive gains that some feared, Alouane said gradual victories should still raise alarm bells.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe far right is slowly but very surely gaining more and more voters. Whether they are voting out of conviction or to vote against someone, they are now part of the landscape,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s not an atomic victory, but that\u2019s how they progress. They don\u2019t do it all at once. It\u2019s step by step, and their strategy is working quite well.\u201d<\/p>\n

When the far right does cement a hold in a municipality, they tend to stay in power for years.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce they\u2019re in power, they stick around \u2013 at least in the south, but it\u2019s similar in the north. It\u2019s very difficult to dislodge them because their policies are very focussed,\u201d Poupelin said.<\/p>\n

\"FrenchFrench President Emmanuel Macron waves to bystanders as he leaves a polling station during the first round of France\u2019s municipal elections in Le Touquet-Paris-Plage, France, Sunday, March 15, 2026 [Jean-Francois Badias\/Pool via Reuters]<\/p>\n

The far right usually governs with a focus on tax cuts, public safety and reducing subsidies for \u201ccommunitarian\u201d organisations, according to Poupelin, who analysed the administrative accounts of 10 municipalities in southeastern France to see how funding for local organisations is distributed when the far right is in power.<\/p>\n

Organisations focused on working-class neighbourhoods, vulnerable populations, and immigrants are often targeted, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSocial services tend to shrink significantly, and in some cases disappear, in those cities,\u201d Poupelin said. \u201cIn Frejus, for example, community centres have gradually closed.\u201d<\/p>\n

When social centres for young people disappear, it negatively affects the whole neighbourhood.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese were kids who no longer had any places to meet up or to play, so they stayed outside, which inevitably led to misbehaviour and other issues. So, we see a lost generation in those neighbourhoods,\u201d Poupelin said.<\/p>\n

As Colin votes again on Sunday, he retains some optimism despite the close race in Marseille.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s still a glimmer of hope that it\u2019s not a total loss. There are still some gains on the left,\u201d Colin said.<\/p>\n

For once, he hopes it will rain in the southern city and draw more people away from the sea and to the polls.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe weather wasn\u2019t great last weekend, which actually encouraged people to go vote instead of going to the beach,\u201d Colin said. \u201cI hope it doesn\u2019t turn out to be nice on Sunday either, so people do the same.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Paris, France \u2013 France heads to the polls on Sunday for local elections to usher in mayors and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":835750,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5309],"tags":[33,2000,299,36,12,285,74429],"class_list":{"0":"post-835749","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-france","8":"tag-elections","9":"tag-eu","10":"tag-europe","11":"tag-france","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-politics","14":"tag-the-far-right"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116254684641382238","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/835749","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=835749"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/835749\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/835750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=835749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=835749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=835749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}