France on the ballot, in Paris the heir to Hidalgo ahead of Rachida Dati

According to exit polls and the first counting data of the French municipalities, Emmanuel Grégoire, socialist 'invested' by Anne Hidalgo as his successor at the Paris Municipality, is in the lead over former Minister of Culture Rachida Dati (Républicains), who is aiming to break 25 years of uninterrupted reign of the gauche in the French capital.

Grégoire and Dati will go to the ballot next Sunday, and already party sherpas are everywhere at work in most of France's 35,000 municipalities to forge alliances and build barricades for the decisive second round.

In the capital, as counting progresses, the gap between Grégoire (36%) and Dati (24%) is widening. But the word now passes to the parties, with the right-wing Républicains backing the former Justice Minister who could have the votes of the extreme right to try to wrest the Hotel de Ville from the left.

The first data from the municipalities - an election polled carefully because it represents a sort of dress rehearsal in view of the 2027 presidential elections - confirm the RN of Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella in great advance in the country and strongly rooted in its local fiefdoms: it is leading in Tolone and sees the RN leader and former Marine Le Pen companion, Louis Aliot, re-elected mayor from the first round in Perpignan.

Marine Le Pen's party is watching very closely in Marseille, where its candidate Franck Allisio is aiming to wrest the city's highest office from the outgoing left-wing mayor, Benoit Payan. But, according to the first exit polls of the Elabe institute, Payan would be slightly ahead. For the RN, the most important goal would be to go from governing small and medium-sized towns to governing one of the largest cities in the country.