François Bayrou, the outgoing mayor of Pau, southwestern France, on the night of his defeat in the municipal elections, March 22, 2026. GAIZKA IROZ/AFP
François Bayrou appeared stunned and visibly emotional around 10 pm on Sunday, March 22. Against all expectations, the former prime minister was defeated in his stronghold of Pau, in southwestern France, in the second round of the municipal elections. His Socialist opponent, Jérôme Marbot, a 50-year-old lawyer and leader of the local opposition, won with a 344-vote lead. Bayrou, 74, lost the mayoral office he had held for 12 years.
Read more Map: French municipal election results after second round
"It is a difficult evening for us, and I fear it is also a difficult evening for our city. That said, this is democracy," Bayrou said, speaking from an art center where his supporters had gathered, shortly after the official results were announced. Still reeling from his defeat, the leader of the MoDem centrist party delivered "a message of gratitude to this incredible city," which he had spent 25 years trying to win over and which, he said, he had "never stopped loving for a single day."
Marbot, for his part, did not wait to celebrate his victory, bursting with joy and carried in triumph by his supporters an hour earlier. The candidate of the left-wing alliance, excluding the radical-left La France Insoumise (LFI) party, expressed his "immense pride" in taking the helm of the city of 80,000 residents and promised to be a "hands-on mayor." "When the image of the man is tarnished, it is the image of the city that is tarnished," he said, sounding the death knell for Bayrou's tenure.
