In a few weeks, French voters will take to the polls to elect the nation’s 35,068 mayors. While Emmanuel Macron’s The Republic on the Move (LREM) party is ahead in national polls, its candidates may have a hard time unseating longtime mayors around the country.
LREM faces a similar battle in Paris where, despite her unpopularity for the controversial war against cars she has waged in the nation’s capital, the Socialist Party's Anne Hidalgo remains the frontrunner. Recent polls projected Hidalgo to win 23 percent of the vote in the first round of elections, slated for March 15.
Hot on her heels is the mayor of Paris’s 7th arrondissement (district), Rachida Dati, who polls show winning 20 percent of the vote. Macron’s party is in disarray, with two LREM candidates having initially presented themselves as candidates—though only one with the party’s blessing.
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