At any traffic light in Paris at 8 a.m., a crowd of bicycles gathers in the front row. On some streets, like Rue Rivoli, in front of the Tuileries Garden, the enormous number of bikes at any time of day is surprising. They far exceed the number of cars. The fight against private vehicles and the promotion of sustainable transport methods have been one of the pillars – and, surely, the most visible one – of the twelve years of socialist Anne Hidalgo as mayor of Paris, the first woman to hold the position. "It is essential to transform the city to adapt it to climate change," she argued in the early years of her mandate.

The French return to the polls this Sunday to elect their local representatives. France is holding the first round of municipal elections, votes that don't usually carry national weight. However, this time, the proximity of the presidential elections—scheduled for spring 2027—will mean that the results will be interpreted through the lens of national politics. Marine Le Pen's far-right National Rally (RN), a party that has traditionally had a weak local presence, wants the municipal elections to be its springboard to the Élysée Palace. Le Pen and her right-hand man—and likely presidential candidate if she is definitively barred from running—Jordan Bardella, want to translate their strong showing in the recent legislative and European elections into more mayoralties. This won't be easy because the RN's limited local presence means it can't field candidates in a significant number of municipalities. There's an anecdote that perfectly illustrates the situation: Bardella won't be able to vote for a candidate from the party he leads because Garches, the municipality of 17,000 inhabitants where he lives on the outskirts of Paris, doesn't have a candidate from Réagrupament Nacional.