Sawt Falasteen - France to elect mayors in run-up to key presidential vote

The polls to elect mayors and councillors for six years are to be held in two rounds -- on Sunday, then a week later on March 22.

Here's what to know:

- What's the context? -

The local election comes with the far-right National Rally (RN) party seeing its best chance at winning the presidency in 2027, when centrist Emmanuel Macron will have to step down after the maximum two consecutive terms in office.

Former prime minister Edouard Philippe is one of the candidates with the best chance next year of challenging the RN contender -- either three-time presidential candidate Marine Le Pen, 57, or her lieutenant Jordan Bardella, 30.

But first Philippe, a centrist who as premier helped steer France through the Covid pandemic, is hoping to keep his seat as mayor of the northern port city of Le Havre, a role he has held since 2014.

"If I fail to convince the people of Le Havre, I will have to face the consequences," the 55-year-old said on Wednesday.

An opinion poll last month has piled on pressure on Philippe, after suggesting his Communist opponent Jean-Paul Lecoq could win by a narrow margin in a runoff.

- Who's running in Paris? -

In Paris, an ambitious right-winger is hoping to head city hall after 25 years of the left being in charge.

Former culture minister Rachida Dati, a 60-year-old of Moroccan-Algerian origin who faces graft accusations she denies, wants to become the second woman mayor in a row.

Her main rival is 48-year-old Socialist candidate Emmanuel Gregoire, the deputy to the city's current mayor Anne Hidalgo, whose legacy includes bike lanes and making the Seine river swimmable for the 2024 Summer Olympics.

"Paris could well swing to the right," said Mathieu Gallard of the IPSOS BVA pollster.

"The race right now looks tight -- with on one side a strong demand for change, but on the other a trend in favour of the left in past elections."

- What of the far right? -

In the southern city of Marseille, the country's second largest, incumbent leftist mayor Benoit Payan is to go head-to-head with far-right candidate Franck Allisio in the first round.

Payan warned earlier this month that Marseille falling into the hands of the far right would be "an earthquake for the country".

Macron called snap polls in 2024, hoping to consolidate his majority in parliament. But his centrist bloc instead lost it, and the anti-immigration RN became the single largest party in the lower chamber.

Marta Lorimer, a politics lecturer at Cardiff University, said the far-right party would be seeking to "establish themselves further" in the municipal polls.

"It is important to them that they do well in local elections, because then they can use it to establish some more credibility at the national level," she said.

The RN is running in around 600 of some 35,000 villages, towns and cities countrywide.

Party leader Bardella -- to vie for president next year if an appeals court bans Le Pen from office over a fake jobs scam in the European Parliament -- hopes for wins in dozens of municipalities.

- What happens in the runoffs? -

In recent elections, including the 2024 snap polls, left-wing and centrist parties have allied in the second round to prevent a far-right win.

But after the fatal beating last month of a far-right activist, which authorities have blamed on the hard left, several on the left have ruled out any alliance with fringe leftists.

Dominique de Villepin, a moderate right-winger and former premier, has described the incident as France's "Charlie Kirk moment", referring to an ultraconservative activist shot dead in the United States last year.

He has warned the incident risked being exploited to "delegitimise part of the political spectrum and cast the triumphant far right as a victim".

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D.AbuRida--SF-PST