Municipal elections: the new voting method in Paris, Lyon and Marseille validated by the Constitutional Council

A new voting system will be implemented for municipal elections in Paris, Lyon, and Marseille. The Constitutional Council approved it yesterday. From now on, councilors in central town halls will be elected directly, in addition to district and sector representatives.

The Sages noted that for these three municipalities, the most populated in France, the legislature was justified in wanting to "improve the representation of the various political sensitivities within (their) deliberative assemblies", "in accordance with the objective of constitutional value of pluralism of currents of thought and opinions".

The reform, championed by Paris Renaissance MP Sylvain Maillard, who welcomed "the end of a democratic anomaly" on Thursday, was supported by the government. It was passed by the National Assembly in early July despite hostility from the Senate.

It must be applied from the municipal elections of March 2026, leading to a double election system, and therefore two ballot boxes, one to elect the members of the Central Town Hall Council (Paris Council, Municipal Councils of Lyon and Marseille) - who then elect the mayor -, the other to elect those of the district (in Paris) or the sector (in Lyon and Marseille).

In Lyon, the reform involves the organization of a triple ballot, since the citizens of the municipalities of the Lyon Metropolitan Area already vote directly for their metropolitan representatives, at the same time as for their municipal councilors. In particular, the Constitutional Council, which was asked to consider this point, considered that "the new rules introduced are not particularly complex."

The reform puts an end to the voting system introduced by the "PLM law" in 1982: voters in Paris, Lyon and Marseille previously voted in each district or sector for a list of councillors, with the elected representatives at the top of the list sitting on both the district/sector council and the central town hall council.

But the list that came out on top in each district/sector benefited from a majority bonus of 50%, giving the Paris Council and the municipal councils of Lyon and Marseille a morphology that was sometimes far removed from the results at the municipal level.

In 1983, the socialist Gaston Defferre - the inspiration behind the law - was re-elected mayor of Marseille thanks to a majority of left-wing municipal councillors, although his lists won fewer votes across the city than those of the right.

This system of election by district - sometimes compared to that of the American presidential election with electors in each state - had led the promoters of the reform to denounce these mathematical subtleties, in that they biased the majority fact.

In the capital, the very solid presence of the left in the eastern half of the arrondissements could appear as a "lock" allowing it to maintain its hegemony on the Paris Council since 2001. Anne Hidalgo , who is not standing again, was also strongly opposed to the reform, like the whole of the Parisian left. She again deplored this Thursday to the AFP that the text "calls into question the balance of power between the mayor of Paris and the arrondissement mayors."

Emmanuel Grégoire, the Socialist leader for 2026, for his part "acknowledged" the decision and, like his rival Ian Brossat (PCF), denounced a "tampering" aimed, according to them, at favoring Rachida Dati 's candidacy for mayor of Paris. The latter's entourage also agreed that she was "reinforced by these new rules of the game" to succeed Ms. Hidalgo.

Pierre-Yves Bournazel, head of the list invested by Horizons, the party of Edouard Philippe , welcomed "major democratic progress", while the president of the MoDem group on the Paris Council, Maud Gatel, welcomed to the AFP "a re-enchantment of local democracy".

The new voting system could also allow the RN to enter the Paris Council - only one candidate from the National Front (the former name of the party) having previously achieved this feat, during the 1995-2001 mandate.

The Green mayor of Lyon, Grégory Doucet , a candidate for re-election but facing competition in the polls from the former boss of Olympique Lyonnais Jean-Michel Aulas, had also criticized a "messy and divisive" reform.

On the other hand, the socialist mayor of Marseille, Benoît Payan, a candidate for his own re-election, welcomed a new voting system "which puts an end to a derogatory system which has had its day" and "was unfair".

The head of the region, Renaud Muselier (Renaissance), and the LR head of the Marseille metropolitan area, Martine Vassal - the latter being expected to head the list again in March - had spoken out against the reform.