France Enters Pre‑Election Truce With Second‑Round Municipal Races on a Knife‑Edge

Overview

• Sunday’s second round features 1,521 runoffs across roughly 1,600 communes and sectors, with polls opening at 8 a.m. and most closing at 6 p.m., later in some large cities.
• Paris remains too close to call, with multiple late polls placing Emmanuel Grégoire narrowly ahead of Rachida Dati within the margin of error, while Sophia Chikirou stays in the race.
• Lyon is deadlocked after a week of deals, as an OpinionWay survey shows Grégory Doucet and Jean‑Michel Aulas tied at 50% each following a technical fusion with LFI.
• Marseille polling points to an advantage for incumbent Benoît Payan over RN’s Franck Allisio after the LFI list withdrew, as Toulouse looks razor‑thin with Jean‑Luc Moudenc at 51% versus François Piquemal at 49% in an IFOP poll.
• Inter‑round alliances and withdrawals have reshaped contests nationwide, PS–LFI pacts in cities like Toulouse and Nantes stirred tensions including heckling of Piquemal, and Paris saw disputed claims over presidential influence and an alleged veto by Édouard Philippe reported by Sarah Knafo.