Paris's municipal elections, scheduled for March 15 and 22, 2026, introduce a new voting system that breaks with tradition. Adopted in 2025 at the urging of Rachida Dati, the reform allows voters to cast separate ballots for their arrondissement and the central city hall. This change, amid the capital's other peculiarities, opens unexpected prospects in the race for City Hall.
Parisian municipal elections have long been marked by peculiarities. Established less than fifty years ago, in 1977, they make the mayor responsible for both a city and a department, with powers intertwined with those of the region for transport and the state for security. Among the roughly 35,000 ballots held simultaneously across France, Paris's stands out particularly for the 2026 vote.
The main innovation lies in the voting method, reformed in 2025 through an amendment to the 1982 law applying to Paris, Lyon, and Marseille. Thanks to intense lobbying by Rachida Dati, the Republicans mayor of the 7th arrondissement, lawmakers adopted this change to ease her potential rise to the central city hall. Previously, voters elected arrondissement councilors who then chose the mayor. Now, they will vote twice: once for their arrondissement and once for City Hall. This marks a precedent, as in the only pre-reform election in 1977, arrondissement town halls did not exist.
This separation breaks the interdependence between local baronies and the central mayor's office. For instance, in the 15th arrondissement, Philippe Goujon (LR), the dean of the Paris Council, has ruled since 2008 over a territory more populous than Le Havre. In the past, central mayor candidates had to court these local officials for support; now, that dynamic is severed, making the election more open and unpredictable.
