Voters will be called to the polls across France on March 15 to choose their new municipal council (conseil municipal) and, indirectly, their mayors.
A second round of voting will be held in some areas on March 22, but only one round is needed if a list of candidates receives an absolute majority of votes (50% plus one), which is often the case in rural areas.
Non-EU nationals without French citizenship, including Britons since Brexit, are barred from voting in municipal elections or standing as candidates. An exception is made for those who are also citizens of another EU country and who live in France, but they cannot become mayor or deputy mayor (adjoint).
Would-be candidates must also be at least 18 years old, have fulfilled their military obligations, and be registered to vote in the municipality or registered there for local taxes.
There are restrictions on certain professions – for example, judges – standing in municipalities within their jurisdiction. And municipal employees cannot be elected in the municipality they work for.
Representation
The council is elected on a ‘list system’, with each list featuring candidates with a common programme.
This year it is compulsory for each one to have equal male and female representation, with men and women alternated on the list.
Each list must include a number of candidates equal to the number of seats to be filled: seven for municipalities with fewer than 100 inhabitants, and up to 69 for those with 300,000 inhabitants or more.
Candidates, especially in small communes, are often elected on an independent or non-partisan basis. Generally, if a town has a population of around 5,000 or more, it will have party-political lists, but there is no hard and fast rule.
Voter concerns
A recent poll showed that security is the most important factor for French citizens ahead of the 2026 municipal elections – the issue was cited as a major factor for 58% of people, followed by local surroundings and environment, local taxes, and the cleanliness of the commune.
The mayor is formally elected by the new municipal councillors during the first council meeting, held between Friday and Sunday after the final round. The vote is by secret ballot, requiring an absolute majority in the first two rounds, or a relative majority in a third if needed.
In practice, however, the mayor is usually already known, as it is almost always the tête de liste (first name on the list) of the winning group. In smaller communes, the outcome can be less predictable and may only be decided once councillors meet.
What happens next
After the election, the municipal council meets at least once a quarter, with the mayor acting as both its administrative and political head.
There were 34,874 mayors in France at the last count (December 2025), and they have traditionally been important figures. In rural areas particularly, villagers will be quick to tell you if they have a good mayor, or one “who does nothing”.
But even the latter are often elected for more than one six-year term, because with the job and its stipend come responsibilities not everyone wants to assume.
Responsibilities
The role of mayor – and of municipal councils in general – has been going through significant changes. Successive governments pushed for a new layer of local government, usually called a communauté de communes (CdC), whereby individual communes group together to supposedly offer better services.
CdCs can now be responsible for some of the traditional activities of the mairie, in areas such as waste management, water treatment, economic development projects, highway maintenance, housing and urban policies, and healthcare, cultural and sporting facilities.
Mayors are still responsible for the finances of the commune, and for communal buildings and equipment, including primary school buildings and canteens, but not for the teaching and running of schools, which are under the control of the education ministry through unelected regional rectorates.
Other responsibilities include maintenance of communal roads, and civil services such as registering births, marriages and deaths. Mayors or their deputies also preside over marriage ceremonies, which are typically held at the town hall.
Mayors are often the first to know when residents are in difficulty and make sure social services, usually provided by the department, are alerted to needy cases.
They have limited police powers over matters such as issuing fines for littering, fly-tipping, for not keeping dogs under control or other minor public order offences.
In larger towns, the council decides whether or not to have a municipal police force, under the command of the mayor, and how police officers should be armed.
The mairie can advise with planning applications and – for smaller projects – approve a déclaration préalable de travaux. It has the carte communale, a map of the commune that shows which parcels of land can be built on.
It is also the place to go if you require an attestation to prove residency, or for information about recycling.
At other times, the mairie is a source of information. Its secretary is usually well informed and happy to give out details of local doctors, dentists, artisans or sports clubs and societies.
They are often employed on a shared job basis with other communes, and handle the reception of the public, and the pages and pages of bureaucratic paperwork from the department and prefectures sent out to mairies. With their legal and administrative training they can greatly help mayors.
Mayors receive a stipend for their position, depending on the size of the commune. For communes of 500 inhabitants or fewer it is now €1,017 a month before tax and charges, rising to €3,421 for communes of 20,000 to 49,000 people.
A different scale applies for large towns, with the mayor of Marseille, for example, receiving €5,600 a month.
Deputy mayors can be appointed with specific remits, such as for roads or social affairs. They usually receive a stipend half that of a mayor.
