Marine Le Pen’s National Rally (RN) has scored significant gains in the municipal elections in France, held on 15 and 22 March. RN and its partners won 3,019 mayoral and city council seats—a massive increase compared to 2020, when they secured just 827.
While many of those seats are located in smaller towns and rural areas, one of the most important victories was secured by Éric Ciotti, former leader of The Republicans (LR), who allied with RN and won the mayoral race in Nice, France’s fifth-largest city, defeating a candidate backed by President Emmanuel Macron’s party.
One of the most symbolic victories was the flipping of a socialist stronghold in La Flèche, which has been controlled by the left since 1959.
Due to the two-round system, left-wing and mainstream forces managed to keep RN out of power in several major cities, such as Marseille, Toulon, and Nîmes. However, the party’s expanding influence, alongside the consolidation of its traditional strongholds, provides grounds for optimism ahead of next year’s presidential election.
RN presidential candidate Jordan Bardella said after the results of Sunday’s second round that it marked the ‘largest breakthrough’ in the party’s history. He highlighted gains in Perpignan, Menton, and Carcassonne, framing the outcome as clear progress rather than a setback—contrary to what he described as the narrative of the mainstream media seeking to downplay RN’s gains.
‘Starting tomorrow, our municipal teams will take action to restore safety, the foremost of all freedoms,’ Bardella said, adding that the party rejects any tax increases in the municipalities it won.
‘Tonight, the National Rally is winning dozens of municipalities in the second round of the elections,’ Marine Le Pen wrote on X. ‘This is a huge victory and a confirmation of the party’s strategy to establish a strong local presence,’ she continued, adding that the party’s candidates ‘can be proud of the work’ they have done, regardless of the outcome in each municipality.
At the same time as the second-round results were coming in, France Elects, an X account covering French polling data, shared a recent survey conducted by Toluna–Harris Interactive, showing Jordan Bardella well ahead of every other candidate in the 2027 presidential race. The RN leader stands at around 35–36 per cent in all first-round scenarios, while the second-placed candidate, progressive leftist Raphaël Glucksmann, trails at 14 per cent.
Jordan Bardella became the party’s leading candidate in March 2025, after Marine Le Pen was convicted of embezzlement and subsequently barred from holding public office for five years. The conviction was described by several right-wing leaders, including Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and US President Donald Trump, as a ‘political witch hunt’ aimed at keeping RN out of power. Le Pen’s appeal trial began on 13 January.
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