By Ingrid Melander and Michel Rose
PARIS, March 15 (Reuters) – Former French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe came first in Sunday’s first-round mayoral vote in his northern city of Le Havre, delivering a better-than-expected performance that boosts his hopes of running for president in 2027.
Le Havre was one of the first French cities to report exit polls in Sunday’s mayoral election, in which voters will elect the leaders of some 35,000 towns and cities across France.
The vote serves as a test of the strength of the far-right and the resilience of mainstream parties ahead of next year’s presidential election.
Philippe, who served as President Emmanuel Macron’s premier until 2020, won 43.76% of the vote in Le Havre, according to an Elabe exit poll, while Communist candidate Jean Paul Lecoq got 33.35%. Frank Keller, of the far-right National Rally Party, got over 15%, the exit poll showed.
The three will face off in a run-off vote next Sunday, but Philippe outperformed polls ahead of the vote, lifting his hopes of reclaiming his northern fiefdom. Philippe is seen as one of the few centrist candidates capable of beating the far-right National Rally (RN) in 2027, and he has said that he would not run next year if he did not secure re-election in Le Havre.
In comments after the exit poll, Philippe called on rivals to back him to keep the Communists, backed by the far-left France Unbowed, and the RN from power.
“Elections are not polls. In a democracy, it is the voters who decide,” he said.
The far-right National Rally also claimed to have done well in many municipalities around France. Exit polls showed it had won Perpignan near the Spanish border straight from the first round, in one of the biggest cities it already controls.
(Reporting by Ingrid Melander, Juliette Jabkhiro, Leigh Thomas, Michel Rose, Layli Foroudi, Manon Cruz; Writing by Ingrid Melander; Editing by Andrei Khalip and Elaine Hardcastle, Gabriel Stargardter and Diane Craft)
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