Sawt Falasteen - French elect mayors in key cities including Paris

Most of the country's 35,000 villages, towns and boroughs elected their leaders in a first round last weekend, but the races went to run-offs in about 1,500 communes, including bigger urban centres.

The local ballots are being closely watched to gauge the mood on the ground and potential party alliances before the election of a successor to centrist President Emmanuel Macron next year, with the far right scenting its best chance yet at seizing power.

Polls opened at 8:00 am (0700 GMT) on the French mainland, AFP journalists at stations across the country saw, with results expected to start trickling in some 12 hours later.

"A little over a year before the presidential election, the final results of this local ballot will provide valuable insight into the mood of the French public," Le Monde newspaper wrote in an editorial on Friday.

In Paris, the race is looking tight between leftist Emmanuel Gregoire, a former deputy of outgoing Socialist mayor Anne Hidalgo, and his runner-up, right-wing ex-minister Rachida Dati.

The former justice and culture minister, a mentee of now convicted ex-president Nicolas Sarkozy, hopes to seize Paris for the right after 25 years under leftist leadership to become its second woman mayor in a row.

Dati, who faces trial in September on corruption charges she denies, has boosted her chances after a centre-right candidate and a far-right hopeful dropped out.

But Gregoire had refused a helping hand from a hard-left contender who has remained in the race, splitting the leftist vote.

In recent elections, leftist and centrist parties have allied in the second round to prevent a far-right win.

But the left has been fractured since the fatal beating last month of a far-right activist blamed on fringe leftists, with the moderate left only allying with more radical politicians on a case-by-case basis.

- New city for the far right? -

Marine Le Pen's far-right National Rally (RN) party is also hoping for better scores than in previous local polls.

The RN claims that it and its allies were re-elected last Sunday in 10 communes, including the southern city of Perpignan of 120,000 inhabitants -- the largest in France to be run by the far-right party.

They also won for the first time in 14 other districts.

But they are also hoping to be elected in larger areas.

Its candidate won by far the most votes in Toulon, a southern city of 180,000 residents. If captured in the run-off, it would be the largest under RN control to date.

In the southern city of Marseille, France's second-largest, RN hopeful Franck Allisio came second last week, a single percentage point behind incumbent left-wing mayor Benoit Payan.

But the left looks likely to stay in charge, after a hard-left candidate stepped down.

In the northern port city of Le Havre, declared presidential candidate Edouard Philippe is well-placed to remain mayor.

Philippe, a centrist who as prime minister helped steer France through the start of the Covid pandemic, is seen as one of the strongest opponents to the RN's potential presidential pick -- whether three-time candidate Le Pen, 57, or her 30-year-old lieutenant Jordan Bardella.

Overall turnout for the first round stood at 57 percent -- the country's lowest in local polls bar the Covid pandemic-affected last edition in 2020.

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T.Samara--SF-PST