Overview

• Government spokesperson Sophie Primas announced the dates after the Council of Ministers, noting that Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau presented the decree setting the calendar.
• The 2026 vote will introduce a new system for Paris, Lyon and Marseille that replaces the long-standing PLM framework.
• Voters in these cities will cast two ballots on the same day: one to choose members of the central municipal council that elects the mayor, and another for arrondissement or sector councillors.
• The reform ends the 1982 PLM arrangement in which leading candidates could sit simultaneously on local subdivision councils and the central city council.
• The decree will be published in the Official Journal, and the cycle also brings a shift to parity list voting without panachage in communes under 1,000 inhabitants.