2026 Municipal Elections in Toulon: Hubert Falco, Josée Massi, Michel Bonnus... Towards an agreement on the right to counter Laure Lavalette (RN)?

"Let's let this meeting go..." Josée Massi , current mayor of Toulon, will not let anything slip about her state of mind before what looks like a G5 of the Toulon right, planned for this Friday in a brasserie in the city center, according to our information. This shows the stakes of this strategic meeting in view of the municipal elections. The other participants? Macronist MP Yannick Chenevard , LR senator Michel Bonnus , as well as Benoît Pelletier , municipal councilor in Toulon. That's four potential heads of list. Plus an arbiter, at the origin of this summit meeting: the former Var pillar Hubert Falco sentenced to five years of ineligibility for receiving stolen public funds, but still influential locally.

"There have been ups and downs, but it has never been war between us," assures Benoît Pelletier, whom the former mayor of Toulon would have liked to see foil the plans of RN MP Laure Lavalette, the favorite for March 2026. "All coming together around the same table is already positive." Enough, when an agreement has not been possible so far? "That does not mean that it will change everyone's ambitions, even if we will have to agree to present a single list in order to beat the extremes and in particular the National Rally," he adds. Also in the game, Yannick Chenevard, whom some consider the most credible candidate for the center-right municipal majority to retain the town hall, puts forward "a message of unity."

Towards a single top candidate on the right?

The same goes for Michel Bonnus, who has regained his "power" and "a few pounds" after seven months of chemotherapy for pancreatic cancer detected in the fall. "We said we would see each other, and we're doing it! " emphasizes the former rugby champion, who has been having lunches at home and contacting each other throughout the summer, but each time separately, in addition to the thematic work meetings he has organized in recent months. We're not overdoing it. On the contrary, we want to project a good image ." Unthinkable just a few weeks ago, given how exacerbated the rivalries of all these former teammates seemed and how different their sensitivities.

" We have to show that we respect each other even if we don't agree on everything ," continues the pro-Retailleau senator. "We have to speak the same language to find solutions and unite people around us. It starts with a positive attitude." And as for leadership, what do they have in mind? " I don't know what will come of it ," he dodges. "But we have to learn lessons from it..."

From there to giving up being the top candidate for three of them? Not so simple. "We'll see who will be best placed to bring people together," argues Michel Bonnus, who fears that the Metropolis will also swing towards Marine Le Pen's party.

When? Having been badly mistreated in a first confidential poll that we revealed in the spring, the LR parliamentarian wants to conduct, at his own expense, a new opinion poll in the coming weeks, once the campaign has really begun. This will buy time for the opponents of the Toulon right, which is not yet truly united.