Right-wing Les Republicains (LR) party candidate in Paris, Rachida Dati delivers a speech in Paris on March 15, 2026. (Photo by Thomas Samson / AFP)
Paris, France: The race for Paris mayor looked uncertain on Monday as a right-wing former minister hoping to wrest control of the French capital from the left claimed she had gained key support for second-round mayoral polls.
Rachida Dati, until recently culture minister, hopes to become the capital's second woman mayor in a row, and bring Paris under control of the right for the first time in 25 years.
Her main rival is Socialist former deputy mayor Emmanuel Gregoire, who came out well ahead of her in a first round of voting on Sunday.
He scored 37.98 percent of the vote, while she gained 25.46 percent, results showed.
Gregoire has promised to carry on the legacy of outgoing Socialist mayor Anne Hidalgo, including by increasing the number of bike lanes and green spaces and improving public housing in the densely populated city of two million people.
Dati has vowed to make the city cleaner and safer, pledging to improve garbage collection, give weapons to municipal police officers and increase video surveillance.
Three other candidates also made it through to the second round next Sunday.
The hard left's Sophia Chikirou came third with 11.72 percent of the ballots, followed by centre-right hopeful Pierre-Yves Bournazel with 11.34 percent, and far-right contender Sarah Knafo with 10.40 percent.
With the second round just six days away, the race was on for leading candidates to form alliances.
Dati claimed on X she had teamed up with her centre-right opponent.
"We're going to work with Bournazel on a project for political change," she announced. "The lives of Parisians over the next six years are at stake."
A member of Bournazel's team however told AFP that "nothing had been decided yet" as Dati still had to "reject the extremes", referring to any alliance with the far-right candidate.
A source at the presidential palace said President Emmanuel Macron had approved Dati and Bournazel joining forces.
Gregoire has refused to join forces with the hard-left France Unbowed (LFI) party's Chikirou, his team said.
She has said she would remain in the race if Gregoire refused an alliance.
"I'm waiting for a call from Gregoire to block Dati's path in Paris," she wrote on X.
Several politicians on the left have refused to ally with the hard left after the killing last month of a far-right activist blamed on fringe leftists.
