The second round of municipal elections in the Alpes-Maritimes on Sunday 22nd March delivered a significant shift to the far right across the department, with Éric Ciotti winning the mayoralty of Nice and Alexandra Masson of the Rassemblement National taking Menton — results that carry direct implications for Monaco’s nearest neighbours.
The most consequential result of the evening came in Nice, France’s fifth largest city, where Ciotti — president of the Union des Droites pour la République, allied with the RN — won with 48.54% of the vote against incumbent mayor Christian Estrosi of Horizons, who received 37.20%. A third candidate, left-wing écolo PCF-PS candidate Juliette Chesnel-Le Roux, took 14.26% and declined to stand aside in the second round — a decision Estrosi blamed directly for his defeat.
“The republican front is dead in Nice tonight,” Estrosi said in an emotional concession speech, before announcing his withdrawal from local political life. He had been 15,000 votes behind Ciotti in the first round and never closed the gap.
The result follows Cagnes-sur-Mer, the department’s fourth largest city, where RN deputy Bryan Masson had already eliminated the centre-right incumbent Louis Nègre in the first round a week earlier.
Menton falls to the RN
In Menton, RN deputy Alexandra Masson won with 49.09% of the vote. The rival right-wing list backed by LR, Horizons and Renaissance — headed by Sandra Paire and featuring Louis Sarkozy, son of the former French president — took only 34.69%, with a third right-wing candidate drawing 16.22% of the remaining vote.
The presence of LR senator Henri Leroy and his nephew, LR mayor Sébastien Leroy of Mandelieu-la-Napoule, at Masson’s victory celebration — despite their party having officially backed the opposing list — illustrated the fractures now running through the traditional right in the department.
Mixed results elsewhere
Not every contest went to the far right. In Saint-Laurent-du-Var, LR mayor Joseph Segura held on by the narrowest of margins — 186 votes, or 50.69% against 49.31% — against 26-year-old RN candidate Rafaël Quessada. In Vence, LR-aligned candidate Anne Sattonnet defeated the incumbent mayor Régis Lebigre by just 109 votes. In Carros, the sitting mayor lost to his challenger, and in Roquefort-les-Pins, a 20-year-old independent candidate defeated a seven-term incumbent by 39 votes.
The RN also took Peymeinade, where Brigitte Vidal won with 52.85%.
Cannes mayor David Lisnard, while congratulating Ciotti, called on him to break from his RN alliance and “join the independent right to give France new energy”.
Turnout in the second round was 55.92%, marginally higher than the 55.7% recorded in the first round.
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Photo source: Eric Ciotti social media