By Ingrid Melander and Juliette Jabkhiro
PARIS/MARSEILLE, March 22 (Reuters) – The far-right National Rally failed in its bid to win the southern French city of Toulon in key municipal elections on Sunday, several exit polls showed as voting ended, in what is set to be a major disappointment for Marine Le Pen’s party.
In Toulon, the RN scored 46.5% of the votes, behind the center-right candidate Josée Massi with 53.5%, according to an Elabe poll for BFM TV.
Exit polls in bigger cities, including in Paris and Marseille, are expected later. Official results will trickle in through the evening.
It is set to be a close race in Paris and Marseille.
The RN’s chances of winning the biggest prize it covets – Marseille – took a hit when hard-left candidate Sebastien Delogu of France Unbowed (LFI) withdrew from the second round out of concern that splitting the left’s vote could help the RN.
Elsewhere, former Prime Minister Edouard Philippe was re-elected mayor in his northern city of Le Havre, according to TF1 and LCI broadcasters, delivering a better-than-expected performance that boosts his hopes of running for president in 2027.
And LFI looked set to win in Roubaix, a city of nearly 100,000 in northern France, an Ifop-Fiducial poll for TF1, LCI and Sud Radio showed, in good news for a party that had so far not focused much on local elections.
The thousands of separate municipal ballots are often focused on very local issues and their outcome does not forecast who will win in the April 2027 presidential election.
But they show trends in popularity and in the type of alliances that can be struck in an increasingly fragmented political landscape.
(Additional reporting by Gianluca Lo Nostro, Michel Rose, Inti Landauro, Gus Trompiz and John Irish; Writing by Ingrid Melander; Editing by Michel Rose and Mark Porter)
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