One year before the first round, the 2026 municipal elections in Marseille promise to be a complex equation, where many unknowns persist. A left in place but fragmented, a right gathered and revancing but without a leader, a national rally in ambush and an even uncertain voting system make up an unpredictable political landscape.
On July 4, 2020, it was during the first meeting of the municipal council that the Marseillais discovered their new mayor: Michèle Rubirola, elected ecologist and figurehead of the Marseille printemps.
Despite the second round of June 28, this large citizen and left coalition had only a relative majority. It was ultimately the running mate of the former socialist senator Samia Ghali, in her 15th and 16th bastion, who turned Marseille to switch after 25 years of right governance under Jean-Claude Gaudin (LR).
Five years later, Michèle Rubirola only occupied the post of first assistant, having left Benoît Payan her chair in December 2020 for “health reasons”. Ex- PS now classified various left, he fully took on his role as mayor. An Ifop survey published on March 14 by Provence and BFM Marseille reveals that 57% of those questioned believe that it would make “a good mayor of Marseille in 2026”. He widely ahead of Martine Vassal, various presidents of the Aix-Marseille-Provence metropolis and the Bouches-Du- Rhône department (47%), unhappy candidate of the right in 2020, as well as Renaud Muselier (37%), Renaissance president of the Provence-Alpes-Côte-d'Azur region.
Other Figures in Li-Lost Closes (29%), Institute Popula Marsay, Lings RN Marseillais (23%).
Union or divisions in perspective?
If Benoît Payan has not yet officially announced his candidacy for a second term, he nevertheless recognizes that “to change a city, six years is not enough”. “My goal is to preserve the city and beat the extreme right. And for that it will take a widest possible gathering,” he says.
It remains to be seen whether the Marseille spring of 2026 will resemble that of 2020. During the last electoral deadline, the environmentalists had first made a rider alone in the first round, apart from a few individuals like Michèle Rubirola, before joining the Union in the second. As for the rebellious, they had remained behind.
“What is certain is that there will be a rebellious list in Marseille” in 2026, said Sébastien Delogu to AFP, rejecting any idea to align themselves “behind people who have changed clientelism and corruption in this city”.
Ecologists could also move away from the Marseille spring in the first round. Assistant to the ecological transition, Sébastien Barles acknowledges that the current municipality “assaulted finances and awarded an administration plagued by clientelism”. However, he deplores certain “renunciations” as well as a “security drift”.
Supporter of a unified list in the first round “on the NFP arc, by integrating the rebellious”, he does not exclude another scenario if the union fails: “It is not sure at all that we leave with Payan, in any case in the first round. With the rebellious, we are rather in tune on this radicality of transformation of the city”.
While the left displays its dissensions, the right wants to regain Marseille by presenting itself united, unlike 2020, where a candidate on the move and a dissident list had contributed to the defeat of Martine Vassal. This time, the union seems acquired … but a candidate is still missing.
For Muselier it's no, for Vassal maybe
“I repeat that I am not a candidate for the town hall of Marseille, being president of the PACA region until 2028”, insisted in December Renaud Muselier, wishing to “cut short all kinds of rumors”.
For her part, Martine Vassal said recently: “I am president of the metropolis, I would like to remain so”, while specifying that she “forbids nothing” and that she is actively working on the “union” of the right.
With three deputies out of seven elected officials in Marseille during the last legislative elections and a score of 30% in the European elections in June, the RN- CEOTTI alliance should be led by Franck Allisio, former LR, who announces decision-making “in the weeks or months to come”. However, an alliance with Stéphane Ravier, an ex-RNA at Conquest during the presidential election 2022, seems to be excluded.
The questions do not only concern candidates, but also the rules of the electoral game. A text aimed at modifying the specific voting system in Paris, Lyon and Marseille must be examined in the assembly on April 2. The goal? Replace the election by arrondissement or sector with a single district, as in all other municipalities in France.
Benoît Payan says he is in favor of this reform in order to avoid the election of a mayor “on the green carpet”, like Gaston Defferre (PS) in 1983, who had won the town hall with less votes than Jean-Claude Gaudin. Renaud Muselier, he firmly opposes it, denouncing an “electoral tampering of certain Parisians”.
While waiting for the situation to clarify, the tensions on the left will be exposed to justice on May 22. On this day, the former PS assistant to the sports in Marseille, excluded from the municipality following this case, will appear alongside his father, a former socialist deputy, for alleged violence on two collnors rebellious
(With AFP)
