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lthough mayors remain the most popular figures in French politics, they have not escaped the political crisis that has gripped the national stage for years. The high voter abstention rate (42.8%, according to Interior Ministry data and Le Monde's calculations) in the first round of France's municipal elections on Sunday, March 15, sounds the alarm, especially in small towns where the political offer clearly failed to meet expectations.
In 68% of towns, only a single mayoral candidate list was presented, leaving some voters feeling frustrated or uninterested in participating. Some observers see this as the result of a change in the voting system in towns with fewer than 1,000 inhabitants, where the ability to mix candidates from different lists is now banned, depriving voters of the ability to strike or add names as they wished.
But a deeper reason may explain this shrinking number of candidate lists: It is becoming increasingly difficult to serve as mayor. Nearly half of outgoing mayors did not run for re-election, a sign of discouragement fueled by rising incivility, increasingly consumerist attitudes among voters, and mayors' inability to address residents' top concern: safety, which primarily falls under the remit of the state.
