The president of Les Républicains, Bruno Retailleau, in Paris, on March 8, 2026. XAVIER FRANCOLON/SIPA
Bruno Retailleau chose a "neither-nor" approach for the second round of Nice's mayoral election, held on Sunday, March 22. While speaking about the election, a vicious duel between incumbent Mayor Christian Estrosi and local MP Eric Ciotti, on the news channel BFM-TV on Wednesday, March 18, the conservative Les Républicains (LR) party leader said it is "now up to the people of Nice to decide at the ballot box." Effectively, this judgment amounted to abandoning Estrosi, the center-right Horizons mayor who is trailing by 12 points (30.92% to 43.43%) behind Ciotti, the candidate endorsed by the far-right Rassemblement National (RN) party.
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Retailleau condemned the "toxic campaign" in Nice and said he did "not identify with one side or another." This served as his justification for disregarding the agreement he had signed with Horizons, the party founded by former prime minister Edouard Philippe, as well as for overriding a decision taken by LR's national nomination committee, which had named Dominique Estrosi-Sassone, Estrosi's ex-wife and one of his running mates, as the LR "lead candidate" in Nice. "I was surprised and a bit taken aback by Bruno Retailleau's remarks," Estrosi-Sassone, who is ranked fourth on her ex-husband's candidate list.
