Candidates for the primary spherical of municipal elections are actually formally submitted. If the overwhelming majority of the 34,953 French municipalities are already assured to have a mayor and a municipal council on the finish of the poll, 75 municipalities haven’t registered any candidacy. No vote can due to this fact be held there on March 15 and 22.
An rising variety of municipalities involved
This determine is comparatively steady in comparison with earlier elections – 64 municipalities involved in 2014 and 106 in 2020. And as usually, small municipalities are the primary affected. All have fewer than 1,500 inhabitants; three-quarters even have fewer than 500 souls.
Only two municipalities had already skilled the identical state of affairs in 2020: Dompierre-les-Tilleuls, in Doubs (291 inhabitants), and Orbigny-au-Mont, in Haute-Marne (138 inhabitants). For all of the others, the state of affairs contrasts with the final election, the place at the very least one checklist was introduced. The territories most affected are French Polynesia (7 municipalities), Haute-Saône and Doubs (5 municipalities every).
The lack of attractiveness of the native operate, with more and more burdensome administrative and monetary constraints, is commonly identified to elucidate the issue find candidates. But the 2025 reform voting strategies might even have contributed to this, as political scientist and analysis director on the CNRS, Romain Pasquier, factors out. Indeed, the lists introduced should now be full and respect parity in all municipalities, whereas this requirement was till now restricted to probably the most populous (greater than 1,000 inhabitants).
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https://www.lemonde.fr/les-decodeurs/article/2026/02/28/municipales-2026-que-se-passera-t-il-dans-les-75-communes-sans-candidats_6668699_4355770.html