Divided electorate – they can take over in Paris

TT

Published 09.06

         

         Social Democrat Emmanuel Grégoire and conservative Rachida Dati after an election debate ahead             of Sunday's decisive mayoral election in Paris. Archive photo. Photo: Thibault Camus/AP/TT

A right-wing minister who has moved towards the center hopes to break the left's power in Paris.

The French municipal elections indicate a rare divided electorate.

Rachida Dati has been a minister under both Nicolas Sarkozy and Emmanuel Macron and now hopes to break 25 years of left-wing rule in the French capital. But then she will have to turn around an unexpectedly large deficit against Social Democrat Emmanuel Grégoire in Sunday's decisive election round.

Several uncertain decisions await around the country, with the electorate pulling in different directions, in different parts of the country.

With just over a year left until the next presidential election, this year's local elections have been seen as an important gauge of which movement has the wind in its favor.

However, the results from last weekend's first round mostly point to a stormy sea, with divided support for both the left and the right, the center and the outer edges.