Right and center in Bordeaux seek alliance for 2026 elections
Nine candidates are vying for Bordeaux's mayoralty in the March 2026 municipal elections, as the right and center seek to unite against ecologist Pierre Hurmic, in office since 2020. Renaissance MP Thomas Cazenave is leading alliance efforts with right-wing figures like Nathalie Delattre. A potential challenger to the incumbent mayor recently withdrew his candidacy.
Bordeaux's March 2026 municipal elections promise to be competitive, with nine declared candidates. Thomas Cazenave (Renaissance) and Pierre de Gaétan (Les Républicains) were the first to announce early in the year, followed by Nathalie Delattre (Parti radical), as well as Alexandra Siarri and economist Philippe Dessertine, who are close to right-wing circles despite claiming independence.
In June 2020, ecologist Pierre Hurmic, an opposition councilor for twenty-five years, captured the mayoralty from the right, which had held it since the end of World War II – a seventy-three-year reign. The win came in a vote with low turnout (36.93% in the first round, 38.33% in the second), amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
Eager to reclaim the city, right-wing and centrist forces are banking on unity despite rivalries. Thomas Cazenave, Bordeaux MP since 2022 and former junior minister for public accounts, had already attempted an alliance in 2020. A first-round candidate, he joined Nicolas Florian (LR), Alain Juppé's successor, in the runoff, but their list lost to Hurmic's. As an opposition councilor and metropolitan elected official, Cazenave persists and aims to seal a deal with the right and Nathalie Delattre. A potential challenger to Hurmic recently withdrew his candidacy, potentially easing this union following the iconic tenures of Jacques Chaban-Delmas (1947-1995) and Alain Juppé (1995-2004 and 2006-2019).