In Amiens, birthplace of Emmanuel Macron, around ten candidate lists are emerging ahead of the March 15 and 22 municipal elections, signaling unusual political discord.
Amiens, the capital of the Somme department with 136,000 residents, is experiencing local political turbulence. This Picardy city, birthplace of President Emmanuel Macron, has seen announcements of about ten candidate lists for the municipal elections, a figure unprecedented in its recent history.
The city shifted to the right under Gilles de Robien, a former UDF mayor from 1989 to 2002 and 2007 to 2008, who also served as a minister under Jacques Chirac. A brief socialist interlude occurred from 2008 to 2014. Since then, a right-and-center majority has prevailed, based on a 2014 agreement between the Union of Democrats and Independents (UDI), which holds city hall, and The Republicans (LR), overseeing the Amiens Metropole.
The metropole encompasses 173,000 inhabitants across 39 mostly rural communes with broad powers. Amiens lost its regional capital status in 2016 to Lille upon the creation of the Hauts-de-France region. This surge in lists, from both left and right, highlights local divisions just over two months before the vote.
