Socialist Emmanuel Grégoire won the Paris mayoral race on Sunday, succeeding fellow party member Anne Hidalgo. He claimed victory after partial results put him well ahead of conservative rival Rachida Dati, who conceded defeat.
After projections from the second-round runoff, Grégoire said Paris would stand against the advance of the right and far right ahead of next year’s presidential election. “Paris will be the heart of the resistance against this alliance of the right, which seeks to take away what we hold most precious and fragile: the simple joy of living together,” he said.
Voters across France cast ballots in the decisive second round of local elections, with high-profile contests in Paris, Marseille and Lyon seen as a barometer of national sentiment ahead of the presidential race. The far-right National Rally (RN) has been campaigning for major gains and sees the municipal vote as a key test.
RN candidates lost in several cities the party had targeted, including Marseille, where incumbent left-wing mayor Benoît Payan defeated far-right candidate Franck Allisio. But the RN scored a major win in Nice, where Eric Ciotti, a former conservative who allied with the party, won the mayoralty.
RN leader Jordan Bardella called the municipal results the party’s biggest breakthrough, saying it had won numerous local seats where it previously had no presence.
The Paris and Marseille victories offer a boost to the weakened national Socialist Party. Party leader Olivier Faure said, “Only the left can prevent France from this regression.”
In Le Havre, former prime minister Édouard Philippe was re-elected mayor, strengthening his prospects for a possible presidential run. Philippe, who served as prime minister under President Emmanuel Macron from May 2017 to July 2020, said his win showed “there were reasons to be hopeful” and that the extremes can be beaten.
Edited by: Louis Oelofse