On Sunday 22nd, the French voted in the second round of the local elections, the last major vote before the 2027 presidential elections. The first thing to note is the high abstention rate (over 42%). There was also the predictable rise of the National Rally (far right), which quadrupled its number of councillors across the country and won the mayoralty of Nice, France’s fifth-largest city. On the other side, La France Insoumise (radical left) also made a breakthrough, at the cost of divisions and disputes with other left-wing parties. Alliances and thresholds with or against the ‘extremes’ have punctuated the final days of the campaign, setting the tone for the tense and uncertain electoral year ahead for the French. This election shows, however, that the ‘traditional’ and more moderate parties – Les Républicains (right-wing), the centre and the Socialist Party (left-wing) – remain in the majority across the country. In particular, the PS won the Paris mayoral seat, and the major cities of Marseille and Lyon also remain in left-wing hands. A victory overshadowed the following morning by the death of Lionel Jospin, Prime Minister of France between 1997 and 2002, a highly respected figure on the left.