Sophia Chikirou, lead candidate for La France Insoumise (LFI, radical left) in the Paris municipal elections, at a campaign event, on November 14, 2025. THIBAUD MORITZ/AFP
In 2022, La France Insoumise (LFI) saw its presidential candidate, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, claim second place in Paris with 30% of the vote, compared to 21.9% and third place nationwide. Then, as part of the Nouveau Front Populaire left-wing alliance in 2024, the radical movement secured four of the capital's 18 constituencies, with all four directly elected in the first round of the snap parliamentary elections. Now, for the Paris mayoral election in March, LFI intends to capitalize on its previous strong electoral showings in the French capital.
"The only elections we haven't really thrown ourselves into, where we haven't really invested until now, were the municipal elections. It's not right that our ideas aren't represented at the local level, when so many things are decided locally!" said Sophia Chikirou, LFI's candidate for mayor of Paris, in a January 19 interview on the YouTube channel of journalist Alexis Poulin, a former star presenter on the Russian state-linked media outlet RT France, which was shut down in 2022.
