Five months before the March 2026 Paris municipal elections, the presidential party Renaissance is set to decide its stance. The most likely outcome is support for Pierre-Yves Bournazel, the candidate backed by Horizons. This move could stabilize the center-right bloc in the capital.
The Paris municipal elections, scheduled for March 2026, are seeing the center-right political landscape gradually stabilize. Pierre-Yves Bournazel was endorsed by Horizons, Édouard Philippe's party, in early June. Rachida Dati, meanwhile, received the Republicans (LR) nomination in late August.
Renaissance, the presidential party, must decide its position within the next ten days, by the end of the month. It faces three choices: back Bournazel, support Dati, or run its own candidate. Current indications point to an alliance with Bournazel as the most likely outcome.
Bournazel is a moderate center-right candidate, elected to the Paris council since 2008. He was a LR member until 2017 and a former deputy allied with the Macron camp from 2017 to 2022. Franck Riester, Renaissance's deputy secretary general for elections and co-founder with Bournazel of the Agir party in 2017 – now integrated into Renaissance –, states a strong alignment: “We are very aligned with Pierre-Yves Bournazel's project.”
Riester highlights voters' desire for calm: “We can see today the need and aspiration that voters have for appeasement. From that perspective, Pierre-Yves is less divisive.” This preference does not formally predict Renaissance's national investment commission's decision but indicates a trend toward a united center-right coalition in Paris.