At a polling station in central Paris, during the first round of the municipal elections, March 15, 2026. LUCAS BARIOULET FOR LE MONDE
Twenty-four hours before the deadline for submitting candidate lists for the second round of France's municipal elections, the negotiations around forming alliances were already nearly complete in Paris. On the right, an agreement was reached to merge the tickets of the two candidates who finished second and third in the first round, while on the left, the Socialist frontrunner firmly rejected his radical rival.
After spending the campaign fiercely criticizing each other from afar, the right-wing Les Républicains (LR) candidate Rachida Dati and her by center-right rival Pierre-Yves Bournazel managed to reach an agreement on Monday evening to join forces. Dati, who finished second in the first round with 25.46%, trailing far behind the left-wing candidate Emmanuel Grégoire, reached out to Bournazel on Sunday, saying she was open to merging their lists, despite having previously insisted that her first-round list would remain unchanged for the runoff.
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Paris mayoral election: Socialist Grégoire leads under-pressure Dati
