Municipal election reform in Paris, Lyon, Marseille: disavowal in sight in the Senate

The right is hostile to it, the vast majority of the left too, and even the central bloc is struggling to find its way into it: the Macronist-backed bill is likely to be widely rejected during the debates, which will begin in the afternoon at the Luxembourg Palace.

Also read : Electoral reform in Paris, Lyon and Marseille: first step taken in the Assembly

Adopted by the National Assembly in early April with the support of the executive, the reform would put an end to the voting system introduced in 1982, under which voters in Paris, Lyon and Marseille vote in each district for a list of councillors, with the elected representatives at the top of the list sitting on the district council and the municipal council.

Instead, it plans to introduce two ballots: one to elect district or sector councilors, and the other to elect municipal councilors, within a single constituency. The text also proposes lowering the majority bonus for the leading list to 25%, instead of 50%, as is currently the case throughout France.

These major developments are justified by a very simple formula, the clincher of the text's supporters: " One Parisian equals one vote, one Lyonnais equals one vote, one Marseillais equals one vote. "

But behind this justification also lie important political issues, with each party having taken out the calculator to try to anticipate the impact of the reform on its score in the March 2026 municipal elections. In the Senate, it is clear that the calculations have not been satisfactory.

Also read : What the reform of the voting system would change in Lyon

The bill had passed the Assembly thanks to an atypical majority composed of the central bloc, the Insoumis (Rebellious Party) and the National Rally... But LFI has no elected representatives in the Senate, the RN only a handful and the Macronist group around twenty.

In the upper house, the balance seems to be leaning heavily in favor of rejection, especially since the president of the Senate, Gérard Larcher (Les Républicains), himself did not hold back from expressing his disapproval of the approach. " Is it wise to change a voting system in this way less than a year before the municipal elections? " questioned Mathieu Darnaud, leader of the LR senators, the largest force in the Upper House.

While LR deputies supported the initiative, many saw it as a strategy in the campaign for the party presidency, with Laurent Wauquiez, who was in favor of this reform sought by Rachida Dati—a likely candidate in Paris—and Bruno Retailleau, who was strongly opposed. Unsurprisingly, LR senators overwhelmingly followed the position of the Interior Minister, the former leader of the group in the Senate.

The Socialists, the second largest group in the Senate, share the same vision, with the exception of their Marseille representatives. " It's a poorly written text that mixes together three completely different legal situations ," laments their leader, Patrick Kanner.

The Senate's likely rejection would place the government in a delicate situation regarding this text. Will it convene a joint committee (CMP), a meeting of seven senators and seven deputies tasked with negotiating to arrive at a common text? " The logical thing would be to see in the CMP whether a compromise is possible ," suggests a government source, refusing, however, to " put ourselves in the position of an unfavorable outcome " of the debates in the Senate chamber.

If no agreement emerges, the executive can also decide to give the final say to the National Assembly... But it will have to take responsibility for this with its allies. Indeed, Prime Minister François Bayrou assured in February that he " could not imagine that a text could be adopted on this subject without the agreement of the National Assembly and the Senate ."

" If the government wants to push through with its reform, it will weaken itself ," Lauriane Josende, appointed rapporteur by the LR party, told AFP. " I'm not sure it's worth the effort ."