President Emmanuel Macron warned on Wednesday that political extremists presented a danger to France as candidates continued their campaigning ahead of Sunday's second round of polling in mayoral elections.
In his first public comments since the first round of voting last Sunday, Mr Macron said: "Extremes, wherever they may be, remain a danger to the republic."
France's two-round mayoral races are closely watched for indications of the political mood and patterns of tactical alliance. This year's elections are being regarded as a bellwether for the 2027 presidential contest, with Mr Macron due to stand down after completing two terms in office.
The far-right National Rally, led by Marine Le Pen, and the hard-left France Unbowed party of Jean-Luc Mélenchon have both recorded gains in the first round.
In a notable result, an alliance of France Unbowed and the Communist Party has taken the Paris working-class suburb of Saint-Denis.
Far right gains
The National Rally has also made significant gains. In Perpignan, the incumbent RN mayor Louis Aliot was re-elected with 50.61 per cent of the vote, retaining the largest municipality under the party's control.
In Nice, a far-right ally held a lead of approximately ten points, according to estimates, while in the southern city of Toulon, the far-right candidate was ahead of the sitting mayor, according to projections.
"Change will not wait for 2027. It starts next Sunday," RN leader Jordan Bardella told supporters following the first round.
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Bardella said several outgoing mayors from the party had already been re-elected in the first round. He called on centre-right politicians to join forces with the RN in the second round.
According to early results, Édouard Philippe, a centrist seen as a strong contender for the presidential election, appeared well placed to remain mayor of the northern port city of Le Havre.
In France's second-largest city, Marseille, the RN candidate, Franck Allisio, won 35.35 percent of the vote, putting him neck and neck with the incumbent left-wing mayor, Benoît Payan, with 35.5 percent.
The second round hinges on whether the list led by LFI MP Sébastien Delogu, who won just over 13 percent of the vote, merges with Payan’s list or withdraws in his favour.
Payan said he would engage in “no backroom negotiations, no political horse trading”, a position that Delogu described as “irresponsible”. Payan had rejected a “technical merger” of left-wing lists and instead called for the LFI list to withdraw.
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Mélenchon said the party was urging the left to accept the “outstretched hand” of his movement to defeat the far right.
That could happen in Lyon, where the incumbent Green mayor Grégory Doucet, backed by the Socialists, Place Publique and the Communists, managed to hold his ground against the former Lyon football club boss Jean-Michel Aulas, who leads a joint centre-right list.
LFI candidate Anaïs Belouassa-Cherifi, who won just over 10 percent of the vote, called for a “technical merger” of her list with Doucet’s “to keep the city on the left”, a possibility Doucet did not rule out during the campaign.
(with newswires)
