2026 Nice municipal election
15 March 2026 (first round)
22 March 2026 (second round) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
All 69 members of the Municipal Council 35 seats needed for a majority | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Turnout | 53.58% (first round) 25.04 pp 55.92% (second round) 28.20 pp | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The 2026 Nice municipal election is being held to take place on 15 March 2026, to elect the Mayor of the French city of Nice and the Municipal Council of Nice. This election follows the tenure of Christian Estrosi, mayor of Nice since 2008, who was running for a fourth nonconsecutive term.
Background
Christian Estrosi, was elected as mayor in 2008 and reelected in 2014 and in 2020, with an interruption between 2016 and 2017, when he was presiding the Regional Council of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur. He was a member of The Republicans (LR) but quit the party in 2021 to join Horizons (HOR). He is running for a second term against his former deputy Éric Ciotti who quit LR in 2024 after allying with the National Rally (RN). Ciotti is supported in his candidacy by his new party, the Union of the Right for the Republic (UDR), but also by the RN.[1] On 17 December, LR (which was the former party of both Estrosi and Ciotti) and traditionally a strong party in Nice announced that they would support Christian Estrosi.[2]
Electoral system and context
The 2026 election will take place with a closed-list system. If no list gets 50% of votes in the first round, a second round takes place. Every list that gets at least 10% of the votes can access the second round. Every list getting above 5% of votes can merge with a list that accessed the second round. Half of the seats are attributed to the list coming first in the last round. The other half are attributed proportionately between the lists that get more than 5%.[3]
Candidates
Horizons
Union of the Right for the Republic
The Ecologists
- Juliette Chesnel-Le Roux, Municipal Councillor
Ecology at the Center
- Jean-Marc Governatori, Municipal Councillor
La France Insoumise
- Mireille Damiano
Campaign
In November 2025, Éric Ciotti announced that he had recruited on his list Prefect Françoise Souliman.[4] In January 2026, Jean-Pierre Rivière, who was supposed to be on Ciotti's list in order to become his Deputy Mayor withdrew after concerns were risen by Estrosi's team over his eligibility. He remained a support for Ciotti and wife later joined his list instead.
In February 2026, Gérard Holtz announced he was joining Estrosi's list, while Jean-Marc Governatori announced he was withdrawing his own candidacy in support of Ciotti's.
Polling
First round
| Polling firm | Fieldwork date | Sample size |
Jaquet LO |
Damiano LFI |
Chesnel-Le Roux LE |
Estrosi HOR |
Ciotti UDR |
Vella REC |
Others |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Elabe | 18-25 Feb 2026 | 800 | 1% | 11% | 13% | 30% | 41% | 4% | — |
| OpinionWay | 16-21 Feb 2026 | 830 | <1% | 11% | 12% | 27% | 45% | 2% | 3% |
| Ifop | 16-20 Feb 2026 | 608 | — | 11% | 12% | 32% | 38% | 4% | 3% |
| Cluster17 | 11-15 Feb 2026 | 763 | 0.5% | 10% | 12% | 31% | 41% | 4% | 1.5% |
Second round
| Polling firm | Fieldwork date | Sample size |
Damiano LFI |
Chesnel-Le Roux LE |
Estrosi HOR |
Ciotti UDR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Elabe | 18-25 Feb 2026 | 800 | — | 22% | 33% | 45% |
| 20% | — | 35% | 45% | |||
| — | — | 49% | 51% | |||
| OpinionWay | 16-21 Feb 2026 | 830 | 10% | 12% | 30% | 48% |
| 17% | — | 32% | 51% | |||
| — | — | 45% | 55% | |||
| Ifop | 16-20 Feb 2026 | 608 | 10% | 14% | 36% | 40% |
| — | 20% | 37% | 43% | |||
| — | — | 50% | 50% | |||
| Cluster17 | 11-15 Feb 2026 | 763 | — | — | 49% | 51% |
Results
| 2026 Nice municipal election results | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Party | First round | Second round | Seats | ||||
| Votes | % | Votes | % | Nb. | +/- | |||
| Éric Ciotti | UDR-RN-ÉAC | 52,274 | 43.43% | 61,009 | 48.54% | 52 | 45 | |
| Christian Estrosi | HOR-LR-RE-UDI-MoDem | 37,214 | 30.92% | 46,753 | 37.20% | 13 | 43 | |
| Juliette Chesnel-Le Roux | LE-PS-PCF | 14,356 | 11.93% | 17,926 | 14.26% | 4 | 2 | |
| Mireille Damiano | LFI | 10,767 | 8.95% | — | 0 | 0 | ||
| Céline Forjonnel | DIV | 2,690 | 2.24% | 0 | 0 | |||
| Cédric Vella | REC | 2,238 | 1.86% | 0 | 0 | |||
| Estelle Jacquet | LO | 812 | 0.67% | 0 | 0 | |||
| Registered voters | 229,111 | 53.58% | 229,111 | 55.92% | ||||
| Abstention | 106,361 | 46.42% | 100,991 | 44.08% | ||||
| Total votes | 122,750 | 100% | 128,118 | 100% | ||||
| Blank or invalid votes | 2,399 | 1.95 | 2,430 | 1.90 | ||||
| Valid votes | 120,351 | 98.05 | 125,668 | 98.10 | ||||
References
- ^ Hélin, Lucas (25 November 2025). "Municipales à Nice : Éric Ciotti indique que sa liste «n'aura pas d'étiquette politique», ni le logo du RN". Le Figaro.
- ^ Hélin, Lucas (17 December 2025). "Municipales 2026 : LR derrière Estrosi à Nice, Horizons apporte aussi son soutien à Louis Sarkozy à Menton". Le Figaro.
- ^ "Municipales quel mode de scrutin dans les communes de 1000 hab. et plus| vie-publique.fr". www.vie-publique.fr. 20 November 2025.
- ^ Hélin, Lucas (21 November 2025). "Municipales 2026 : à Nice, une ex-préfète et ancienne chargée de mission par l'Élysée rejoint Éric Ciotti". Le Figaro.