Paris does not yield: Grégoire triumphs, the right advances elsewhere and Philippe thinks of the Élysée.

It was not a battle to the last vote nor a photo finish victory: Paris, socialist stronghold for 25 years, will remain with the left even after Anne Hidalgo. Emmanuel Grégoire - her heir - won the runoff decisively, rejecting the right-wing Républicains led by Rachida Dati with a wide margin: 53% to 38%, according to early estimates.

The alliance of Dati, who left the government and the Ministry of Culture to run for the capital's city council, with the Macronists of Pierre-Yves Bournazel, who withdrew urging his voters to support the right, was rejected. Grégoire's strategy was the opposite; despite the threat from an opponent who could have garnered votes from Sarah Knafo (far-right of Reconquête!), who withdrew, he did not accept the repeated offers of alliance from La France Insoumise.

"Paris - has decided to remain true to its history." "It was the victory of a certain idea of Paris - he added - a viral, progressive, popular Paris, a Paris for everyone. Paris is not and will never be a far-right city."

With a historically low turnout once again (about 57% at the polls, only higher than in 2020 during the pandemic elections), the trend of growth for the far-right and far-left appeared to be slowing down, albeit with different characteristics.

The RN won in "dozens of municipalities" in this runoff, Marine Le Pen proclaimed tonight, celebrating a "huge victory" for her party which now has "thousands of municipal councilors." However, it lost soundly in what could have become the first major city to be governed by the far-right, Marseille. There, Benoît Payan, the mayor from the united socialist left, who rejected the alliance offer from Jean-Luc Mélenchon's party, repelled the attack from RN Franck Allisio, who was decisively defeated.

The RN also lost in cities where it is traditionally strong, such as Toulon and Nîmes, still in the south and in preferred regions.

The number 2 of La France Insoumise, Manuel Bompard, also celebrated the "breakthrough" of his party which "confirms itself, amplifies, and strengthens." Despite the resounding defeat in Limoges and in almost all the cities where the socialists allied with La France Insoumise: a choice that not only proved to be losing for the socialist, environmentalist, and communist left, but also saw the opposite strategy win, that of the socialist rejection of LFI's offers: this was the case in Paris and Marseille, where Grégoire and Payan won after having - despite many doubts - rejected the idea of allying with Mélenchon's party.

Among the most striking examples of this trend is the epochal defeat of the left (united with LFI) in a city like Clermont-Ferrand, governed by the left for 80 years, at the hands of the right-wing Républicains. The socialists allied with LFI also lost another previously untouchable stronghold, Tulle, where the former president and former socialist secretary, François Hollande, has been elected for years.

Important, on the horizon of the 2027 presidential elections, is the confirmation of Édouard Philippe in the mayor's chair of Le Havre: his reelection in the Normandy port was considered by the former prime minister an essential condition for him to run for the Élysée. His fate was closely monitored by analysts since the polls that have fueled the ambitions of the extremes see him as the best potential opponent of Marine Le Pen (or Jordan Bardella if the RN leader faces legal hurdles) and Jean-Luc Mélenchon.