Socialist Party candidate Emmanuel Gregoire has won the mayoral race in Paris, Agence France-Presse and the Associated Press reported.
He will succeed his party colleague Anne Hidalgo as mayor of the French capital after the results of the second round of local elections showed a clear lead for the traditional left.
The far-right won a convincing victory in the city of Nice, located on the French Riviera.
The vote was a test of the balance of power on the French political map before the start of the race for the presidential election in 2027. Final results are still awaited in major cities, including Paris.
Gregoire declared victory after partial results showed that ahead of her conservative rival Rachida Dati, who in turn conceded defeat.
“A certain vision of Paris won tonight; a vibrant Paris, a progressive Paris“, Grégoire said before cycling through the streets of Paris to the city hall.
He added that the city “will be the heart of the resistance“ against the alliance of the right and the far right, a year before the presidential election.
French voters today voted in the second round of local elections in 1,500 towns, including large cities.
Mayors and municipal councilors are elected for a six-year term.
Turnout as of 5 p.m. local time (6 p.m. Bulgarian time) was just over 48% - higher than in 2020, when the elections were held during the COVID-19 pandemic, but four percentage points lower than in 2014, the Interior Ministry said.
In Nice - the fifth largest city in France, located on the French Riviera - the far right won its most convincing victory of the election, after its candidate Eric Ciotti was elected - a former conservative who allied with Marine Le Pen's “National Rally“.
However, Le Pen's party lost in several cities it had made a priority. These included Marseille – France's second-largest city, where incumbent left-wing mayor Benoit Payan won against far-right candidate Franck Alisio.
Far-right candidates also lost to incumbents in Nimes and the Mediterranean port city of Toulon, two key targets for the "National Rally."
Last Sunday, voters elected mayors in about 93 percent of the 35,000 villages, towns and cities where one or two candidates not affiliated with any party were running, the AP recalls.