They have almost all claimed to have "Marseille in their blood," and made endless declarations of their love for the Mediterranean city, France's second largest. Each candidate has approached the race's starting line, hoping to secure Marseille's central City Hall, which has been run for the past six years by a coalition of left-wing, grassroots and Green parties known as the Printemps Marseillais.
Facing the incumbent left-wing independent mayor, Benoît Payan, who stepped in to replace his Green party predecessor, Michèle Rubirola, when she resigned in December 2020, are the ambitious local leader of the far-right Rassemblement National (RN) party, Franck Allisio; a right-wing and centrist alliance headed by Martine Vassal, the president of Marseille's metropolitan authority, who was previously defeated six years ago; and radical left-wing La France Insoumise (LFI) MP Sébastien Delogu.
This lineup of political heavyweights has barely been challenged by the unexpected candidacies of former senior civil servant Erwan Davoux, running as an independent alongside local right-wing figure Nora Preziosi. The race has also been spiced up by the presence of environmental activist Victor Hugo Espinosa, age 76, running as an independent Green candidate. Le Monde presents the six main candidates for mayor, whose scores and potential alliances between the two electoral rounds could play a decisive role in determining the future governance of Marseille and its metropolitan area.
