2026 Marseille municipal election

The 2026 Marseille municipal election is scheduled to take place on March 15, 2026 to elect the Mayor of Marseille and the Municipal Council of Marseille, with an eventual runoff on March 22. This election follows the tenure of Benoît Payan, mayor of Marseille since December 2020, who is running for a full term. The election is expected to be highly competitive.

Benoît Payan, a member of the Socialist Party (PS), was first elected mayor in 2020, after Michèle Rubirola who had only served for a few months, resigned. He quit the PS after his election, preferring to focus on local politics rather than national politics. LFI, that was part of his majority at the beginning, split away as the mayor became more and more critical of the party. Payan announced his intention to run for reelection in 2026 while LFI member Sébastien Delogu announced his intention to challenge the mayor. Martine Vassal, candidate for The Republicans (LR) in 2020, also announced her intention to run. She had quit her party in 2022, but nevertheless gathered its support as well as the support of centre-right parties Renaissance (RE) and Horizons (HOR) that did not support her in 2020. Senator Stéphane Ravier, candidate for the National Rally (RN) in 2020, quit his party in 2022 and initially intended to run with his local party Marseille d'Abord but finally announced he was supporting Franck Allisio (RN) in his candidacy. Allisio managed to get the support of some of Martine Vassal's close allies, making them join the Union of the Right for the Republic (UDR).

The 2026 election will be influenced by ongoing discussions about electoral reform in Marseille.^[1] President Macron has proposed that mayors in Paris, Lyon, and Marseille be elected by direct universal suffrage rather than by an electoral college of city councilors, a system currently viewed as "anti-democratic" by some candidates.

• Benoît Payan, incumbent Mayor

• Martine Vassal, President of the Departmental Council of Bouches-du-Rhône, Municipal Councillor
• Erwann Davoux

• Sébastien Delogu, Deputy

• Franck Allisio, Deputy and Municipal Councillor

In November 2025, Frédéric Collart withdrew from the race just after Erwann Davoux announced he was candidate, in an alliance with Nora Preziosi.

In December 2025, Martine Vassal caused a scandal by publicly refusing to rule out of an alliance in the second round with Franck Allisio of the National Rally. Following protests against such an alliance in Renaissance (that supports her candidacy), Vassal reasserted her will no fight against the "extremes" and denied any rumors of fusion with Allisio.

In December 2025, in his first campaign meeting, Sébastien Delogu held controversial words about the police. Franck Allisio and Martine Vassal condemned his words, and so did the Prefect of the Department.