Romain Lemoigne, the far-right mayor of the Loire Valley town of La Flèche, together with far-right party leader Jordan Bardella, during the May 8, 1945 commemorations, on May 8, 2026. SEBASTIEN SALOM-GOMIS/AFP
Christophe Barthès could no longer stand the far-right Rassemblement National (RN) party's mainstreaming "tie strategy." Before entering the Assemblée Nationale as an RN MP in June 2022, Barthès had never worn one, "not even for [my] weddings." Elected as mayor of the southern city of Carcassonne on March 22, the now former MP, who much prefers to wear his mayoral sash, has embraced a "sash strategy" instead. Now, far from Paris, with his hands free to run the medieval city, he is displaying the full trappings of far-right power, without any pretense.
He has gone on offensives against trade unions and the local press, made cuts to the culture budget and to a popular secondhand clothing market and taken symbolic decisions to appeal to his voters' nationalist sentiments. In his first weeks in office, Barthès, a winemaker, has come to embody the newly-elected RN mayors' uninhibited exercise of power. He has even done so with a clear degree of enjoyment: "It's so rare for people to actually do what they say that people find it extraordinary," he said, feigning surprise. "But what the bobos ["bourgeois bohemians"] think doesn't bother me."
