2026 Nice municipal election

The 2026 Nice municipal election is scheduled to take place on March 15, 2026, to elect the Mayor of the French city of Nice and the Municipal Council of Nice, with an eventual runoff election on March 22. This election follows the tenure of Christian Estrosi, mayor of Nice since 2008, who is running for a fourth nonconsecutive term.

Background

Christian Estrosi, was elected as mayor in 2008 and reelected in 2014 and in 2020, with an interruption between 2016 and 2017, when he was presiding the Regional Council of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur. He was a member of The Republicans but quit the party in 2021 to join Horizons. He is running for a second term against his former deputy Éric Ciotti who quit LR in 2024 after allying with the National Rally. Ciotti is supported in his candidacy by his new party, the Union of the Right for the Republic, but also by the RN. On 17 December, LR and traditionally a strong party in Nice announced that they would support Christian Estrosi

Electoral system and context

The 2026 election will take place with a closed-list system. If no list gets 50% of votes in the first round, a second round takes place. Every list that gets at least 10% of the votes can access the second round. Every list getting above 5% of votes can merge with a list that accessed the second round. Half of the seats are attributed to the list coming first in the last round. The other half are attributed proportionately between the lists that get more than 5%.

Candidates

Ecology at the Center

Jean-Marc Governatori, Municipal Councillor

La France Insoumise

Mireille Damiano

Campaign

In November 2025, Éric Ciotti announced that he had recruited on his list Prefect Françoise Souliman.
In January 2026, Jean-Pierre Rivière, who was supposed to be on Ciotti's list in order to become his Deputy Mayor withdrew after concerns were risen by Estrosi's team over his eligibility. He remained a support for Ciotti and wife later joined his list instead.