Le Pen party wins small-town votes in French elections

The National Rally has secured seats in nearly 70 cities, leader Jordan Bardella has said

Marine Le Pen’s right-wing National Rally (RN) party has won votes in dozens of small and mid-sized towns in France’s municipal elections, but suffered defeats in major cities.

Jordan Bardella, the party’s Euroskeptic, anti-immigration leader, has remained a favorite in approval polls for the 2027 presidential race. RN’s former head, political heavyweight Le Pen, who was previously seen as a front-runner for president, was sidelined last year after a French court convicted her of misusing EU funds. She has maintained that she is innocent.

Bardella has hailed the municipal election, which concluded on Sunday, as a major win for his party.

“Nearly 70 municipalities won. 3,000 RN elected officials are making their entry into municipal councils across France,” he said on X on Monday.

RN’s biggest victory came in the conservative city of Nice, France’s fifth largest city, where its ally Eric Ciotti beat a candidate backed by President Emmanuel Macron.

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However, RN candidates lost in key urban centers such as Marseille, Toulon, and Nimes in Sunday’s runoffs, despite strong first-round performances.

The racial and ethnic breakdown of the population is a central and direct part of the explanation for why RN succeeds in smaller towns but fails in major cities, according to The Nation. Large French cities feature a larger proportion of residents with North African, sub-Saharan African, and other immigrant backgrounds.

Overall, RN more than tripled its number of mayoral and council positions since the last municipal elections. These positions will heavily influence France’s upcoming Senate election, expected to take place in September.

“We won more cities than we had hoped,” Le Pen told journalists on Sunday.

Opinion polls project a strong performance for her protege in a prospective 2027 vote.

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Bardella has emerged as the front-runner, with 37% of French people holding a favorable opinion of him, according to an Elabe survey taken earlier this month. His prospective center-right rivals, Macron’s former prime ministers Edouard Philippe and Gabriel Attal, garnered 33% and 32% approval ratings, respectively, the poll indicated.

Macron cannot stand for reelection in 2027, having served two consecutive terms since 2017. Only a quarter of the French public currently approve of the president, according to the Elabe survey.