Thread by @PedderSophie

First results of 🇫🇷 2nd-round mayoral elections:
- resounding victory for PM Philippe in Le Havre with estimated 59%. This gives him a landing point should Macron decide to reshuffle top job
- RN (ex-FN) captures Perpignan, a sizeable gain for L Aliot (ex-partner of M Le Pen)

Greens set for gains tonight, in Besançon, Poitiers, possibly even Lille, which would be quite a result. The Socialists have held the town for better part of a century. Martine Aubry has been PS mayor since 2001

Demise of PS, rise of Greens, symbolic force of far-right RN (ex-FN), strength of E Philippe, lack of local roots of Macron’s LREM which still revolves primarily around him: all of these forces will help shape French politics over next 2 years ahead of 2022 presidential election

Extraordinary list of French towns captured by the Greens this evening, including (according to exit polls) Strasbourg, Lyon, possibly Lille. Hidalgo (PS) victory in Paris also due in part to Green backing. Will shift balance of power within Green-Socialist alliances.

Recount of vote in Lille taking place tonight after first count gave Martine Aubry (Socialist) victory with margin of 227 votes. Early exit polls suggesting Greens captured the town seem to have been wrong

The Green wave continues across France: Strasbourg, Lyon, Annecy, Bordeaux (Alain Juppé's former city), Marseille, (though not Lille in the end, which Martine Aubry held). Before this vote, the only big town run by the Greens was Genoble. Quite something

And, for the record, a pretty impressive result tonight in Paris for Anne Hidalgo, backed by the Greens. And a pretty dreadful result for Macron's LREM, which once hoped to capture the French capital. (@IpsosFrance exit poll)

Hidalgo (PS) : 49%
Dati (LR) : 34%
Buzyn (LREM) : 13%

*Grenoble (bien sûr, merci @Hocine_boutata)