Early results show that the far-right candidate Louis Aliot has held the town of Perpignan with 51.4 percent of the vote, while the centre-right mayor of Calais Natacha Bouchart has also been re-elected with 59.5 percent. In the town of Vernon in the greater Paris region, mayor Francois Ouzilleau - a close ally of prime minister Sebastien Lecornu - was also re-elected in the first round.
The first round of local elections happens next Sunday (March 15th), with 34,000 communes, from tiny villages up to the major cities, heading out to elect the local mayors who play a huge part in shaping the life and infrastructure of each area.
Now representatives of local mayors are worried that they will not be able to assemble enough candidates to create a list - in small villages mayors often run unopposed due to a lack of people willing to take on the job, which is both unpaid and time-consuming. Representatives of the Association des maires de France, the mayors organisation which is currently staging its national conference, have criticised the rigidity of the list system, saying that it does not suit smaller communes.