A February 4 Ipsos/BVA poll places Alain Carignon, a former mayor convicted of corruption, second in Grenoble's March municipal elections, close behind left-wing candidate Laurence Ruffin, backed by outgoing Green mayor Eric Piolle. His candidacy stirs controversy in a city facing rising insecurity. Ruffin campaigns on youth, solidarity, and culture.
Grenoble's March municipal elections look tight with the return of Alain Carignon, Les Républicains (LR) candidate and former minister under Édouard Balladur. Mayor from 1983 to 1995, he was convicted in 1996 to five years in prison, four of them firm, and five years of ineligibility for corruption and misuse of public funds. He served twenty-nine months, a record for a politician.
The Ipsos/BVA poll, reported by Le Dauphiné Libéré, surprises by placing him second, not far from Laurence Ruffin, the only woman in the race and backed by outgoing Green mayor Eric Piolle. At his campaign office opening in September 2025, about a hundred protesters held signs reading “Thief, fraudster” and “Carignon, money, prison.”
Carignon dismisses the backlash: “I was convicted thirty years ago and caused no moral or political harm to the city.” Raymond Avrillier, the whistleblower who sparked the investigation against him, counters: “He is a corrupter, a suborner of witnesses. The facts remain.” Placed near the bottom of Ruffin's list, Avrillier adds: “I support the reintegration of offenders, but not where they committed their crimes.”
Ruffin remarks: “I take my opponents very seriously.” A Le Dauphiné Libéré poster questions: “How did Carignon become respectable again?” Amid rising insecurity, the campaign highlights deep divisions.
