PARIS — Lionel Jospin, a Socialist prime minister under center-right French President Jacques Chirac, has died at age 88, his family told AFP. Jospin, a household name in France and a social-democratic heavyweight, left politics after failing to qualify for the second round of the 2002 presidential election, which saw far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen qualify for the first time. The result sent shockwaves through the country and foreshadowed the National Rally’s steady rise to become France’s most popular party under the leadership of Le Pen’s daughter, Marine Le Pen. Jospin, a defender of traditional parties, had criticized President Emmanuel Macron for making them obsolete and the French president’s “hubris” in a book published in 2020. Macron praised Jospin as “a great French figure” in a social media post Monday. “Through his rigor, courage and ideal of progress, he embodied a lofty vision of the Republic,” Macron wrote on X. Jospin, who successfully united the left camp during his tenure as the party’s leader in the 1990s and became prime minister in 1997, supported the left-wing alliance uniting the Socialists, the Greens and far-left France Unbowed during the 2022 legislative election campaign. But he cautioned against France Unbowed leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s disruptive political strategy shortly after the election, warning of its potentially destructive effects on the broader left in an interview with Le Monde. Jospin’s death was announced the morning after local elections that are setting the scene for the 2027 presidential race, at a time when the left is weakened by deep divisions among moderates over whether uniting with a dominant but increasingly toxic Mélenchon is inevitable — or risking sinking the left’s ship.

TOULOUSE, France — The prospect of the hard-left France Unbowed party taking control of Toulouse, France’s fourth-largest city and home to Europe’s best-known airplane maker, is putting industry on edge. It’s not just that a win in the second round of local elections Sunday could give the party’s anticapitalist leader, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, a major boost ahead of next year’s presidential election. That’s a concern for later. The immediate fear is that if France Unbowed makes history here — the party has never come close to controlling such a big metropolis — it will heap taxes on local icons like Airbus to pay for a generous manifesto that includes water subsidies, free public transport for residents under 26 years old, and free school meals and educational supplies. “I’m concerned it will jeopardize plans for new firms and factories to open in Toulouse, including the future prospects of Airbus,” said Pierre-Olivier Nau, the president of the employers’ lobby MEDEF in the Haute-Garonne department, which includes Toulouse. Nau also worries that the hard left’s opposition to adding a high-speed rail connection between Bordeaux and Toulouse, due to cost at least €14 billion, will harm businesses that have been expecting it a long time. France Unbowed’s mayoral hopeful argues the project will damage the environment and push up rents in Toulouse by attracting commuters or remote workers from other cities with higher salaries. A TIGHT RACE MEDEF and other business lobbies are now scrambling to react, given France Unbowed was never expected to get this close to power in Toulouse. Its candidate, lawmaker François Piquemal, was polling behind his Socialist Party rival François Briançon in the run-up to the first round of the vote last Sunday. The Socialist leadership had vowed not to work with the hard left after the torrent of criticism unleashed against Mélenchon following accusations of antisemitic behavior and his unapologetic reaction to the death of a far-right activist. So Piquemal’s second-place finish and his quickly formed alliance with Briançon to topple the longtime center-right mayor, Jean-Luc Moudenc, came as a surprise. The runoff is expected to be close. A poll released Thursday showed Moudenc winning by just two points in the second round, within the margin of error. Two local employers’ lobbies recently slammed the hard left’s plans for Toulouse, and a group of 350 local celebrities, including rugby luminaries and business owners, signed an open letter calling on citizens to vote against France Unbowed. “A lot of business projects have been put on hold,” said Nau. Piquemal says this is scaremongering. The 41-year-old former teacher denied he will raise taxes and downplayed talk among business leaders that Airbus, the region’s dominant employer responsible for more than 200,000 direct and indirect jobs, would reduce investments or shift facilities if he were elected. Airbus declined a request for comment. A general view shows an entrance of the Airbus Defence and Space campus in Toulouse on October 16, 2024. | Ed Jones/AFP via Getty Images “Moudenc’s policies, but also [President Emmanuel] Macron’s policies, have worsened living conditions in Toulouse,” Piquemal told reporters in Toulouse on Thursday. “We are the ones who support jobs, we support companies,” he added. “We are the ones defending small shop owners against big corporations.” A soft-spoken man with a light beard and warm manner, Piquemal is characteristic of the new generation of radical left activists in France. He’s just as comfortable discussing toxic masculinity and making videos on TikTok as he is campaigning for rent controls or against Israel’s war in Gaza. He was aboard the so-called Freedom Flotilla with Greta Thunberg and MEP Rima Hassan, carrying aid to Gaza before they were all arrested by Israeli forces. Piquemal, however, is much more understated than his party’s flamethrowing leader. But he’s benefiting from the success of Mélenchon’s adversarial approach to politics. France Unbowed is trying to establish itself as the ultimate anti-establishment party ahead of what is expected to be a showdown with the far right in next year’s presidential election. Most polls show Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella’s party, the National Rally, is currently the favorite in the race for the Elysée. “France Unbowed is the most solid, the best-placed to build a barrage against the far right,” said Ismael Youssouf-Huard, a France Unbowed activist and candidate for the Toulouse city council. “Mélenchon is the sensible choice against the National Rally,” he said. Results in the first round of voting have gone some way toward validating Mélenchon’s provocative approach. France Unbowed won the poor, diverse city of Saint-Denis in the Paris suburbs outright in the first round and is on track to score the mayor’s job in the industrial northeastern city of Roubaix. Hard-left candidate François Piquemal talking to voters in the impoverished Reynerie neighbourhood in Toulouse. | Clea Caulcutt/POLITICO The election in Toulouse is seen as a major test case for Mélenchon ahead of the 2027 presidential election. Can he and his party confirm its leadership role on the left ahead of the presidential election or will more moderate voters, turned off by the hard left’s radicalism, flock toward the opposition? ‘ARE YOU READY FOR SUNDAY?’ At a market squashed between a burnt-out drug dealers’ den and a tower block in the Reynerie neighborhood, Piquemal is trying to get people to vote. “Are you ready for Sunday?” he asked, as he handed out leaflets. “You need to go and vote.” In the Reynerie market, shoppers are pleased to see him. “I’m so happy he did well in the first round,” said Claude Compas, a retired special education teacher. Thibaut Cazal, a leftwing candidate for the city council, hopes to beat abstention in the poorer neighbourhoods of Toulouse. | Clea Caulcutt/POLITICO But some voters are worried about the prospect of the far left running the city. “They say they’ll give free public transport to the youth, but nothing’s free,” said retiree Abdallah Taberkokt. “Who’s going to pay? We are.” Piquemal was generally warmly received — little surprise considering Reynerie swung heavily for him in the first round of the vote. Still, Piquemal thought there was more excitement than usual in his core constituencies. He said he was harnessing “greater momentum” than during the last local election six years ago, when Moudenc narrowly defeated a more moderate candidate backed by a united left. Piquemal’s supporters believe their champion will pave the way for a unified left, despite the fact that the first round of voting exposed deep divisions nationally over local alliances with Mélenchon and the hard left. “These local elections are going to make history,” said Thibaut Cazal, a candidate for councilor alongside Piquemal. “It’ll show that left-wing families can be reconciled.” France Unbowed may still fall short in Toulouse. But even if it does, the party will have proved that it cannot be ignored ahead of the big presidential showdown in 2027.

Mujtaba Rahman is the head of Eurasia Group’s Europe practice. He posts at @Mij_Europe. France’s municipal elections were never meant to be a dress rehearsal for its next presidential race. And yet, the first round of voting on March 15 was exactly that, offering a revealing and deeply paradoxical snapshot of a politically fractured country. At first glance, the results seemed to confirm the prevailing narrative: That Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally (RN) remains the dominant force in French politics, with national opinion polls giving the party a commanding 19-point lead ahead of the 2027 presidential elections. But the reality beneath these headlines is more complicated — and perhaps more fragile. First, the RN’s first-round performance was uneven at best. It did make some advances: It remains competitive in Marseille, leads in Toulon, and most importantly is poised to capture Nice, France’s fifth-largest city, in the second round this coming Sunday. However, analysts have pointed out that the city’s mayoral candidate Eric Ciotti — a former president of the center-right Republicans — only recently joined the RN and made a point of distancing himself from the far-right party throughout his campaign. Furthermore, these gains fell short of both the party’s and pollsters’ expectations. In fact, in most of France’s major urban centers like Paris, Lyon, Toulouse, Nantes, Montpellier, Strasbourg and Bordeaux, the RN scored less than 8 percent. The party’s struggles in these big cities suggest that for all its national appeal, it still encounters resistance when voters are asked to entrust it with an actual mandate to govern. French voters may flirt with the far right in theory, but in practice many remain cautious. The most surprising development, meanwhile, was the performance of Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s hard-left France Unbowed movement, which exceeded expectations across the country. The party captured Saint-Denis, is likely to win Roubaix, and gave a strong performance in cities like Toulouse and Lille. It appears this surge was driven, at least in part, by geopolitical developments — specifically the war in Iran. Based on impressions on the ground, heightened anti-war sentiment seems to have mobilized both the Muslim and young hard-left voters who form the party’s base. The implications of this are significant: Many had written Mélenchon off after a series of scandals and a dip in national polling. But these successes suggest he may yet play an important role in shaping the presidential elections — again — making it difficult for a more moderate left candidate to emerge and possibly even reaching the final run-off alongside the far right. Meanwhile, France’s traditional parties — the center-left Socialists and center-right Republicans — continue to display an unexpected resilience at the local level, despite being nationally sidelined since 2017. Together they dominated a majority of towns, including many of the country’s largest cities, remaining deeply embedded in municipal politics. By contrast, French President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist movement remains conspicuously weak, having failed to establish a meaningful municipal base after nearly a decade in power. It’s an absence that helps explain the lack of a clear anti-incumbent wave, as voters had limited opportunities to express dissatisfaction with the government at the local ballot box given the relatively few centrist mayors they could unseat. Finally, amid this fragmented field, the one figure that stands out is former Prime Minister Édouard Philippe. Philippe’s strong showing in Le Havre — where he secured 43 percent of the vote in the first round — comfortably positions him for reelection. And out of the large pack of candidates trailing behind the far right in the presidential polls, he now looks to be the strongest (though marginally) and most experienced contender. Philippe had previously said he would abandon his national ambitions if he lost the mayoral race, but a good win on Sunday could easily relaunch his flagging national campaign. The second round of municipal elections will, of course, be crucial. A strong showing by the RN — particularly if the party is able to capture Marseille and Toulon — could restore its momentum and reinforce its performance at the national level. But in such an uncertain environment, next year’s race is far from decided. And what the first round of municipal results really reveal isn’t so much a country marching in one direction as one pulled in several at once, searching — perhaps uneasily — for a new political equilibrium.

PARIS — Enter the bogeyman. French hard-left leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon is facing a torrent of criticism following the death of a far-right activist earlier this month in Lyon — and it’s threatening his party’s electoral ambitions. Mélenchon and his anticapitalist party France Unbowed have stressed that their movement is nonviolent and pushed back against allegations that they were responsible for the fight that ended with the killing of 23-year-old Quentin Deranque. But the far-right National Rally — and, to a lesser extent, the conservative Les Républicains — have seized on the tragedy to frame Mélenchon as a dangerous demagogue ahead of key municipal elections next month and the presidential race in 2027. Centrists like French President Emmanuel Macron and Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu are calling on the party to “clean house” and cool their rhetoric. But stoking the anti-Mélenchon flames benefits the surging National Rally, which has spent years trying to become mainstream and convince voters it should no longer be associated with its Holocaust-downplaying founder, Jean-Marie Le Pen. As tensions boiled, National Rally President Jordan Bardella called last week for a cordon sanitaire, or exclusion pact, against France Unbowed. | Charlotte Siemon/AFP via Getty Images Former conservative Prime Minister and likely 2027 presidential candidate Dominique de Villepin said he believes the current “demonization” of Mélenchon’s party “has only one aim: to legitimize the rise to power” of the French far right. Yet the National Rally’s bid to turn France Unbowed into the country’s new deplorables appears to be working. A survey conducted after Deranque’s death by independent pollster Odoxa found that just 11 percent of respondents thought Mélenchon reacted appropriately to the incident. Sixty-one percent of respondents said they are ready to cast a vote in next month’s municipal election to block France Unbowed from coming to power — much like voters used to do with the firewall against the far right. BARDELLA’S FIREWALL CALL As tensions boiled, National Rally President Jordan Bardella called last week for a cordon sanitaire, or exclusion pact, against France Unbowed. Then he asked National Rally officials to refrain from joining gatherings to commemorate Deranque, amid concerns that such events could turn violent. The strategy is clear. Bardella and his allies are attempting to frame their party as the victim of a violent political left that is becoming more radical as the National Rally’s politics are being normalized. “France Unbowed is moving in the complete opposite direction [to us],” said National Rally MEP Pierre-Romain Thionnet, who is close to Bardella. The idea that France is gripped by an increasingly dangerous left is clearly taking hold — even though, historically, most political violence in France has been committed by the extreme right. “We condemn both extreme-left and extreme-right wrongdoing,” said a government official, who was granted anonymity to speak candidly on the sensitive topic. “But there has been a complacency toward the far left, a sort of romanticism in France about the radical left that is dangerous.” Mélenchon, for his part, has long been a controversial figure in French politics, including for his refusal to immediately condemn the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on Israel. That position crystallized in recent days after he praised the spirit of “resistance” of the Young Guard, a now-disbanded antifascist group that was cofounded by a France Unbowed lawmaker and accused of involvement in the fight; blamed the authorities for the violence; and attacked the National Assembly president for suspending the parliamentary aide who is now under investigation for his role in the affair. Looking further ahead, one Socialist Party official warned against counting out the savvy political veteran Jean-Luc Mélenchon with more than a year to go before the presidential election. | Bertrand Guay/AFP via Getty Images LEFT GETS SQUEEZED Though Mélenchon ultimately disavowed the violence and said last week that “nothing justifies young Quentin being brought back dead to his parents,” the combative tone of France Unbowed’s response to Deranque’s death — and the National Rally’s ensuing machinations — put other left-wing parties in a tough spot. Next month’s municipal elections are a two-round affair, and every candidate who scores above 10 percent in the first round advances to the runoff. That means victory often comes down to strategic alliances and convincing a like-minded opponent to swallow their pride and join forces. But in the wake of Deranque’s death, doing business with France Unbowed could prove risky. The left-wing Socialist Party said it has broken relations with Mélenchon and his team after the incident, but it will probably need far-left votes to succeed in runoff scenarios against conservative or far-right opponents. “In cities such as Paris and Marseille, the choice of France Unbowed’s voters could be decisive,” Ipsos pollster Mathieu Gallard told POLITICO. “With the demonization of France Unbowed by the National Rally, the right and some Macron supporters, can the Socialists make alliances with the far left?” Looking further ahead, one Socialist Party official warned against counting out the savvy political veteran Mélenchon with more than a year to go before the presidential election, in which Bardella or Marine Le Pen will lead the poll-topping National Rally. “Jean-Luc Mélenchon is very intelligent, very methodical in his political strategy,” the official, who was granted anonymity to speak candidly, said. “He is embracing a strategy that leads him toward the political margins … but he’s also got ambitions to take the leadership of the left.” Marion Solletty contributed to this report.

PARIS — France’s far right is framing the death of an activist associated with far-right groups as a moment akin to the murder of Charlie Kirk in the United States. The National Rally has in recent days started pointing to the killing of 23-year-old Quentin Deranque in Lyon as proof the poll-topping populist party is the victim of an increasingly radical political left, much as the MAGA movement in the United States did following Kirk’s assassination last year. With key municipal elections next month serving as a bellwether of the National Rally’s electability heading into the 2027 presidential race, the incident has deepened the fissures in France’s polarized politics and fueled fears of further violence. “What happened to Quentin, it feels like it could have happened dozens of times to our supporters in recent years,” said National Rally MEP Pierre-Romain Thionnet. “Of course, those are not the same circumstances,” Thionnet said of the Kirk comparison. “But there are similarities in the way it resonates.” Deranque was, unlike Kirk, unknown to the general public before he died Saturday after taking several blows to the head during a fight that broke out near a university where MEP Rima Hassan was attending an event. The events leading up to the fight that cost Deranque his life remain unclear. The far-right feminist group Collectif Nemesis said Deranque was providing security for them at their protest against Hassan and her anticapitalist party, France Unbowed. France Unbowed and its firebrand leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon have been the focus of most of the fury following revelations that police are investigating whether members of the now-disbanded antifascist group Young Guard, cofounded by France Unbowed lawmaker Raphaël Arnault, was involved in the fight. A judge on Thursday placed two people under formal investigation for voluntary homicide, while one of Arnault’s parliamentary assistants was put under formal investigation for aiding and abetting a crime. Lyon’s chief prosecutor told reporters earlier Thursday that he had requested seven people, including the assistant, be put under formal investigation for voluntary homicide. The prosecutor said three of the suspects told investigators that they were or had been affiliated with “ultra-left” groups. Some acknowledged that they took part in a fight but all denied their intent was to kill Deranque, the prosecutor said. RIGHT-WING SHOCK National Rally President Jordan Bardella likened the incident to terrorism at a press conference Wednesday, as U.S. President Donald Trump had done after Kirk’s death.   “When an organization uses terror to impose its ideology, it must be fought with the same force as terrorist groups,” Bardella said.   France Unbowed and its firebrand leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon have been the focus of most of the fury following revelations that police are investigating whether members of the now-disbanded antifascist group Young Guard was involved in the fight. | Sameer Al-Doumy/AFP via Getty Images Marion Maréchal, Marine Le Pen’s niece and an MEP with Giorgio Meloni’s European Conservatives and Reformists, is asking the European Parliament to hold a debate “on the violence of the far left in Europe that threatens our democracies.”  Meloni herself weighed in, expressing her “shock” on X before blaming “left-wing extremism” and “a climate of ideological hatred that is sweeping across several nations” — sparking yet another feud with French President Emmanuel Macron. Macron and his prime minister, Sébastien Lecornu, said France Unbowed must “clean house.” France Unbowed is invoking Kirk’s killing as well, but as a cautionary tale, concerned about a Trump-like crackdown on universities.  French Education Minister Philippe Baptiste announced Tuesday he would seek to prevent political conferences at universities whenever authorities believed they could lead to confrontation. Hassan, the MEP who had been taking part in a conference in Lyon during the deadly confrontation, said she feared the government would respond with “censorship” at universities.   And French media reported Thursday that Lyon Mayor Grégory Doucet was opposed to holding a march Saturday to honor Deranque over fears it could lead to more violence. HISTORICAL VIOLENCE While the political climate in France appears to have turned more aggressive, historically most violence has been committed by extreme right-wing groups. A 2021 study found that of the 43 homicides with ideological motives that occurred between 1986 and 2014, just four were committed by far-left militants. The sociologist who oversaw that work, Isabelle Sommier, told French newspaper Le Monde in an interview published Thursday that the number of politically motivated assaults has doubled since 2017, most of them carried out by ultra-right extremists. She said if authorities determine that Deranque was killed by an antifascist group because of his political views, he’d be the first victim of extreme-left violence since the 1980s. France Unbowed, for its part, has condemned the violent attack and said they played no role in it, stressing that the party’s call for a “civic revolution” is nonviolent. Arnault, the MP whose assistant is being investigated, expressed “horror and disgust” at the news of Deranque’s death and said he was working with parliamentary services to terminate the contract of an aide who reportedly took part in the fight.  The tragedy isn’t expected to affect France Unbowed’s prospects in the race to lead Lyon, France’s third-largest city. The party was not expected to win there and polling obtained exclusively by POLITICO following Deranque’s death shows no significant change in France Unbowed’s prospects.    The bigger test will be whether the incident affects the outlook for mayoral races where France Unbowed candidates are expected to be competitive.

PARIS — A bitter clash erupted Thursday between Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and French President Emmanuel Macron after the killing of a far-right activist in Lyon last weekend. Meloni’s entourage hit back at Macron after the French president had earlier slammed the Italian leader for saying that the killing of 23-year-old Quentin Deranque was “a wound for the whole of Europe,” Macron, speaking during a trip to India, suggested that Meloni was unduly interfering with France’s internal affairs. The two leaders have fought on topics spanning migration to abortion during a terminally uneasy relationship, but are set to have a moment of reconciliation in April during a Franco-Italian summit in Toulouse. Officials close to the Italian prime minister said Macron’s comments were met “with astonishment” and insisted that Meloni’s statement was meant to “show solidarity with the French people affected by this terrible event and that in no way interfere in France’s internal affairs.” Earlier in the day, Macron said he was “struck by the fact that people who are nationalists, who don’t want to be bothered at home, are always the first to comment on what is happening in other countries.” “If everyone just minded their own business, things would be just fine,” Macron said. The far-right activist died after receiving blows to the head during a fight outside a conference featuring hard-left France Unbowed MEP Rima Hassan at a university in Lyon, France’s third-largest city. Macron said the country’s political extremes must “put their houses in order” after the killing. “There is no space in France for movements that adopt or legitimize violence,” Macron told reporters during a trip to India. Lyon’s Mayor Grégory Doucet on Thursday called on authorities to ban a march in support of the dead activist that was arranged for Saturday.

BRUSSELS — The European Commission will on Wednesday announce plans to invest in EU regions bordering Russia, Belarus and Ukraine that are suffering economically because of the war. Dwindling investments, reduced cargo traffic and a decline in tourism have delivered an economic blow to the EU’s easternmost regions, chiefly affecting the Baltic countries, Finland and Poland. The Commission’s strategy attempts to give an incentive to international financial institutions to provide funding to those areas — but falls short of putting new money on the table. “The safest borders are not just controlled, they’re alive,” said Niina Ratilainen, a member of the Finnish city council of Turku and the European Committee of the Regions’ Working Group on Ukraine. “Investing in jobs, clean energy and education in EU border regions sets the foundation of real security.” The EU is concerned that if these easternmost regions depopulate, Europe’s ability to defend the border is compromised, said a Commission official granted anonymity to speak freely. Brussels is also worried that the economic woes suffered by those living in the regions could see them turn to fringe parties in elections and make them vulnerable to Russian propaganda. Władysław Ortyl, the governor of the Polish region of Podkarpackie, noted that his area is “directly affected by the consequences of the ongoing war, including migratory pressure, transport disruptions and increased strain on public services and the regional economy.” He added that “escalating geopolitical tensions” mean the EU should reallocate resources toward “strengthening resilience” of its border areas. A priority of the plan is to revitalize border areas that are economically depressed as a result of the Russian invasion, whether because of a lack of tourism or due to the dangers associated with living near the Ukrainian border. “Europe’s security begins at its Eastern frontier,” the Commission wrote in a draft of the plan, officially called the Communication on Eastern Border Regions, which was seen by POLITICO. “A strong, prosperous, and resilient Eastern border is essential to safeguard the entire continent.” Yet the strategy to be presented by Executive Vice President for Cohesion Raffaele Fitto contains no new money as the EU’s current budget, which expires in 2028, is overstretched, said two Commission officials. “What we need is direct access to EU funding and a strategy that reflects today’s realities on the ground,” said Milan Majerský, governor of the Prešov self-governing region in Slovakia. “In Eastern Slovakia, we feel the economic, social and security impacts of Russia’s war every day. Our GDP per capita is just over 54 percent of the EU average, and the war has deepened long-standing structural gaps.” Majerský said he met with Fitto in Bratislava last week ahead of the plan’s unveiling. Baltic countries have already set their sights on the EU’s next budget, which is currently being negotiated by member countries. They argue that the Commission’s plan will strengthen their demands to earmark money for the easternmost regions from 2028. “We do expect our specificities to be reflected in the negotiations” on the next EU long-term budget, Lithuania’s Europe Minister Sigitas Mitkus told POLITICO. “This communication [on eastern border regions] will be a living document.” Under Fitto’s plan, global financial institutions will be part of the “EastInvest platform,” which will immediately enter into force to “address investment needs” and provide financing aid to those regions, according to the document draft. A view of Kaliningrad from the Lithuanian town of Pagėgiai on July 10, 2023. | Omar Marques/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images Brussels will allow countries bordering Russia and Belarus — Finland, Poland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania — to use part of their EU regional development funds to offer guarantees to the European Investment Bank, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Nordic Investment Bank and national promotional banks to invest in their easternmost regions, according to the document. The end goal is to offer cheap credit to businesses from regions that border Ukraine that would otherwise struggle to access funding. The door is open for other EU countries bordering Ukraine — including Romania, Hungary and Slovakia — to join at a later stage, one Commission official said. In a partial concession to Baltic countries, the Commission wrote that it will “explore the possibility of dedicated calls for EBRs (Eastern Border Regions) in the upcoming European Competitiveness Fund,” which is a €410 billion pot to support innovative EU businesses from 2028 onward. Such a change would be significant as the Commission previously dismissed calls to attach geographic criteria to the new fund.

PARIS — Three-time hard-left presidential candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon is facing fire from his political opponents ahead of important municipal elections next month after an activist was beaten to death near a university where a conference featuring one of his most prominent allies was taking place. The activist, 23-year-old Quentin Deranque, was involved in a fight outside a conference at a university in Lyon, France’s third-largest city, featuring MEP Rima Hassan. Hassan is one of the most high-profile members of France Unbowed, the party Mélenchon leads, and a polarizing figure in France for her position on Israel and Palestinian statehood. Multiple far-right and ultra-right groups are mourning his death and organizing demonstrations to honor his memory. Nemesis, a French femonationalist organization, said on X that Deranque was there to help ensure the group’s security as it protested the event. Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said Monday that members of the Young Guard, a local anti-fascist group with ties to France Unbowed, appear to have been involved in the incident. The Young Guard was co-founded in Lyon in 2018 by Raphaël Arnault, currently an MP for France Unbowed, to push back against the widespread presence of extreme far-right groups in the city. The Ministry of the Interior ordered the group to be disbanded in June, claiming that “in support of an anti-fascist ideology, ‘the Young Guard’ incites violent acts.” But the Young Guard is challenging that ruling in court with support from France Unbowed and civil liberties watchdogs. One of Arnault’s aides, Jacques-Elie Favrot, has denied allegations that he was involved in Deranque’s killing but said he would step back from his political role as authorities investigate the incident. National Assembly President Yaël Braun-Pivet said Favrot’s access to parliament was being suspended. Nuñez refused to confirm the reports of Favrot’s involvement when asked about them during an interview Monday. Critics have also blamed Mélenchon’s hard-line rhetoric for cultivating a more polarized political landscape, though sometimes without pointing to specific examples. Mélenchon and his supporters counter that he repeatedly calls for a nonviolent “civic revolution” via elections rather than confrontation. Nuñez said in his interview that “radicalness in speech” can lead to “violence in the streets,” while Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin on Sunday pinned the attack on “political rhetoric, particularly that of France Unbowed and the ultra-left.” Government spokesperson Maud Bregeon said France Unbowed had a “moral responsibility” for fostering a “climate of violence.” During a meeting Sunday in support of a local candidate in Montpellier, Mélenchon expressed “empathy for the family of young Quentin” and said that “for [France Unbowed], nonviolence is a fundamental philosophical choice. Violence stunts our movements and brings fear that spreads.” Hassan on Friday said she had been “horrified” to hear of the attack against Deranque. “Whenever I travel, the only security service I work with and who accompany me is that of France Unbowed, which never resorts to violence and is in no way involved in these clashes,” she added. French President Emmanuel Macron responded to Deranque’s death by posting on X, “in a republic, no cause, no ideology can ever justify killing,” without targeting a particular group or political party. In an interview recorded prior to Deranque’s death, Macron said he believed France Unbowed was a “far-left” movement — a label which has been contested by the party and others on the left, as well as some political scientists — and that some of their positions “contradicted the values of the republic.” Rare voices of support for Mélenchon have included Green MP Sandrine Rousseau, who said that France Unbowed was the victim of a “cabal,” and Michel-Edouard Leclerc, an influential grocery store chain executive who is sometimes discussed as a potential future presidential candidate. “Jean-Luc Mélenchon is loud-mouthed, but he is not violent,” said Leclerc. “We cannot blame him for the death of this activist.”

A Hungarian court on Wednesday sentenced German national Maja T. to eight years in prison on charges related to an assault on a group of right-wing extremists in Budapest two years ago. The case attracted national attention in Germany following the extradition of the defendant to Hungary in 2024, a move which Germany’s top court subsequently judged to have been illegal. Politicians on the German left have repeatedly expressed concern over whether the defendant, who identifies as non-binary, was being treated fairly by Hungary’s legal system. Hungarian prosecutors accused Maja T. of taking part in a series of violent attacks on people during a neo-Nazi gathering in Budapest in February 2023, with attackers allegedly using batons and rubber hammers and injuring several people, some seriously. The defendant was accused of acting alongside members of a German extreme-left group known as Hammerbande or “Antifa Ost.” The Budapest court found Maja T. guilty of attempting to inflict life-threatening bodily harm and membership in a criminal organization. The prosecution had sought a 24-year prison sentence, arguing the verdict should serve as a deterrent; the defendant has a right to appeal. German politicians on the left condemned the court’s decision. “The Hungarian government has politicized the proceedings against Maja T. from the very beginning,” Helge Limburg, a Greens lawmaker focused on legal policy, wrote on X. “It’s a bad day for the rule of law.” The case sparked political tensions between Hungary and Germany after Maja T. went on a hunger strike in June to protest conditions in jail. Several German lawmakers later visited to express their solidarity, and German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul called on Hungary to improve detention conditions for Maja T. Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s illiberal government is frequently accused of launching a culture war on LGBTQ+ people, including by moving to ban Pride events, raising concerns among German left-wing politicians and activists over the treatment of Maja T. by the country’s legal system. Maja T.’s lawyers criticized the handling of evidence and what they described as the rudimentary hearing of witnesses, according to German media reports.

Want to get a sense of how the next French presidential vote will play out? Then pay attention to the upcoming local elections. They start in 50 days, and voters in more than 35,000 communes will head to the polls to elect city councils and mayors. Those races will give an important insight into French politics running into the all-important 2027 presidential contest that threatens to reshape both France and the European Union.  The elections, which will take place over two rounds on March 15 and March 22, will confirm whether the far-right National Rally can cement its status as the country’s predominant political force. They will also offer signs of whether the left is able to overcome its internal divisions to be a serious challenger. The center has to prove it’s not in a death spiral. POLITICO traveled to four cities for an on-the-ground look at key races that will be fought on policy issues that resonate nationally such as public safety, housing, climate change and social services. These are topics that could very well determine the fortunes of the leading parties next year. FRANCE IN MINIATURE Benoit Payan, Franck Allisio, Martine Vassal and Sébastien Delogu | Source photos via EPA and Getty Images MARSEILLE — France’s second city is a microcosm of the nationwide electoral picture. Marseille’s sprawl is comprised of poorer, multicultural areas, middle-to-upper-class residential zones and bustling, student-filled districts. All make up the city’s unique fabric. Though Marseille has long struggled with crime, a surge in violence tied to drug trafficking in the city and nationwide has seen security rocket up voters’ priority list. In Marseille, as elsewhere, the far right has tied the uptick in violence and crime to immigration. The strategy appears to be working. Recent polling shows National Rally candidate Franck Allisio neck-and-neck with incumbent Benoît Payan, who enjoys the support of most center-left and left-wing parties. Trailing them are the center-right hopeful Martine Vassal — who is backed by French President Emmanuel Macron’s party Renaissance — and the hard-left France Unbowed candidate Sébastien Delogu, a close ally of three-time presidential candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon. Those four candidates are all polling well enough to make the second round. That could set up an unprecedented and unpredictable four-way runoff to lead the Mediterranean port city of more than 850,000 people. A National Rally win here would rank among the biggest victories in the history of the French far right. Party leader Marine Le Pen traveled to Marseille herself on Jan. 17 to stump for Allisio, describing the city as a “a symbol of France’s divisions” and slamming Payan for “denying that there is a connection between immigration and insecurity.” Party leader Marine Le Pen traveled to Marseille herself on Jan. 17 to stump for Allisio. | Miguel Medina/AFP via Getty Images The center-right candidate Vassal told POLITICO said she would increase security by recruiting more local police and installing video surveillance. But she also regretted that Marseille was so often represented by its struggles. “We’re always making headlines on problems like drug trafficking … It puts all the city’s assets and qualities to the side and erases everything else which goes on,” Vassal said. Payan, whose administration took over in 2020 after decades of conservative rule, has tried to tread a line that is uncompromising on policing while also acknowledging the roots of the city’s problems require holistic solutions. He’s offered to double the number of local cops as part of a push for more community policing and pledged free meals for 15,000 students to get them back in school. Marseille’s sprawl is comprised of poorer, multicultural areas, middle-to-upper-class residential zones and bustling, student-filled districts. All make up the city’s unique fabric. | Miguel Medina/AFP via Getty Images Delogu is the only major candidate not offering typical law-and-order investments. Though he acknowledges the city’s crime problems, he proposes any new spending should be on poverty reduction, housing supply and the local public health sector rather than of more security forces and equipment. Crime is sure to dominate the debate in Marseille. This election will test which of these competing approaches resonates most in a country where security is increasingly a top concern. LATEST POLLING: Payan 30 percent – Allisio 30 percent- Vassal 23 percent – Delogu 14 percent CAN A UNITED LEFT BLOCK A FAR-RIGHT TAKEOVER? Julien Sanchez, Franck Proust and Julien Plantier | Source photos via Getty Images NÎMES — Nîmes’ stunningly well-preserved second-century Roman amphitheater attracts global superstars for blockbuster concerts. But even the glamour of Taylor Swift or Dua Lipa can’t hide the recent scares in this city of more than 150,000 people. Nîmes has in recent years suffered from violence tied to drug trafficking long associated with Marseille, located just a short train ride away. Pissevin, a high-rise neighborhood just a 15-minute streetcar ride from the landmark amphitheater, seized national headlines in 2024 when 10-year-old was killed by a stray bullet in a case that remains under investigation but which prosecutors believe was linked to drug trafficking. “Ten to 15 years ago, a lot of crime came from petty theft and burglaries. But some of the population in underprivileged areas, looking for economic opportunities, turned to the drug trade, which offered a lot more money and the same amount of prison time if they were caught,” said Salim El Jihad, a Nîmes resident who leads the local nongovernmental organization Suburban. The Nimes amphitheatre and Pissevin / Source photos via Getty Images The National Rally is betting on Nîmes as a symbolic pickup. The race is shaping up to be a close three-way contest between Communist Vincent Bouget, the National Rally’s Julien Sanchez and conservative Franck Proust, Nîmes’ deputy mayor from 2016 to 2020. Bouget — who is backed by most other left-wing parties, including moderate forces like the Socialist Party — told POLITICO that while security is shaping up to be a big theme in the contest, it raises “a broader question around social structures.” “What citizens are asking for is more human presence, including public services and social workers,” Bouget said. Whoever wins will take the reins from Jean-Paul Fournier, the 80-year-old conservative mayor who has kept Nîmes on the right without pause for the past quarter century. But Fournier’s decision not to seek another term and infighting within his own party, Les Républicains, have sharply diminished Proust’s chances of victory. Proust may very well end splitting votes with Julien Plantier, another right-leaning former deputy mayor, who has the support of Macron’s Renaissance. Sanchez, meanwhile, is appealing to former Fournier voters with pledges to bolster local police units and with red scare tactics. “Jean-Paul Fournier managed to keep this city on the right for 25 years,” Sanchez said in his candidacy announcement clip. “Because of the stupidity of his heirs, there’s a strong chance the communists and the far left could win.” LATEST POLLING: Bouget 28 percent – Sanchez 27 percent- Proust 22 percent THE LAST GREEN HOPE That was also a clear swipe at Pierre Hurmic’s main opponent — pro-Macron centrist Thomas Cazenave — who spent a year as budget minister from 2023 to 2024. | Source photos via Getty Images BORDEAUX — Everyone loves a Bordeaux red. So can a Green really last in French wine country? Pierre Hurmic rode the green wave to Bordeaux city hall during France’s last nationwide municipal elections in 2020. That year the Greens, which had seldom held power other than as a junior coalition partner, won the race for mayor in three of France’s 10 most populous cities — Strasbourg, Lyon and Bordeaux — along with smaller but noteworthy municipalities including Poitiers and Besançon. Six years later, the most recent polling suggests the Greens are on track to lose all of them. Except Bordeaux. Green mayors have faced intense scrutiny over efforts to make cities less car-centric and more eco-friendly, largely from right-wing opponents who depict those policies as out of touch with working-class citizens who are priced out of expensive city centers and must rely on cars to get to their jobs. The view from Paris is that Hurmic has escaped some of that backlash by being less ideological and, crucially, adopting a tougher stance on crime than some of his peers. Notably, Hurmic decided to arm part of the city’s local police units — departing from some of his party’s base, which argues that firearms should be reserved for national forces rather than less-experienced municipal units. In an interview with POLITICO, Hurmic refused to compare himself to other Green mayors. He defended his decision to double the number of local police, alongside those he armed, saying it had led to a tangible drop in crime. “Everyone does politics based on their own temperament and local circumstances,” he said. Hurmic insists that being tough on crime doesn’t mean going soft on climate change. He argues the Greens’ weak polling wasn’t a backlash against local ecological policies, pointing to recent polling showing 63 percent of voters would be “reluctant to vote for a candidate who questions the ecological transition measures already underway in their municipality.” Pursuing a city’s transition on issues like mobility and energy is all the more necessary because at the national level, “the state is completely lacking,” Hurmic said, pointing to what he described as insufficient investment in recent budgets. That was also a clear swipe at his main opponent — pro-Macron centrist Thomas Cazenave — who spent a year as budget minister from 2023 to 2024. Cazenave has joined forces with other center-right and conservative figures in a bid to reclaim a city that spent 73 years under right-leaning mayors, two of whom served as prime minister — Alain Juppé and Jacques Chaban-Delmas. But according Ludovic Renard, a political scientist at the Bordeaux Institute of Political Science, Hurmic’s ascent speaks to how the city has changed. “The sociology of the city is no longer the same, and Hurmic’s politics are more in tune with its population,” said Renard. LATEST POLLING: Hurmic 32 percent – Cazenave 26 percent – Nordine Raymond (France Unbowed) 15 percent – Julie Rechagneux (National Rally) 13 percent – Philippe Dessertine (independent) 12 percent GENTRIFICATION AND THE FUTURE OF THE LEFT Mayor Karim Bouamrane, a Socialist, has said the arrival of new, wealthier residents and the ensuing gentrification could be a net positive for the city, as long as “excellence is shared.” | Bertrand Guay/AFP via Getty Images SAINT-OUEN-SUR-SEINE — The future of the French left could be decided on the grounds of the former Olympic village. The Parisian suburb of Saint-Ouen-sur-Seine, which borders the French capital, is a case study in the waves of gentrification that have transformed the outskirts of major European cities. Think New York’s Williamsburg, London’s Hackney or Berlin’s Neukölln. Saint-Ouen, as it’s usually called, has long been known for its massive flea market, which draws millions of visitors each year. But the city, particularly its areas closest to Paris, was long seen as unsafe and struggled with entrenched poverty. The future of the French left could be decided on the grounds of the former Olympic village. | Mustafa Yalcin/Anadolu via Getty Images That changed over time, as more affluent Parisians began moving into the well-connected suburb in search of cheaper rents or property. A 2023 report from the local court of auditors underlined that “the population of this rapidly growing municipality … has both a high poverty rate (28 percent) and a phenomenon of ‘gentrification’ linked to the rapid increase in the proportion of executives and higher intellectual professions.” Mayor Karim Bouamrane, a Socialist, has said the arrival of new, wealthier residents and the ensuing gentrification could be a net positive for the city, as long as “excellence is shared.” Bouamrane has also said he would continue pushing for the inclusion of social housing when issuing building permits, and for existing residents not to be displaced when urban renewal programs are put in place. His main challenger, France Unbowed’s Manon Monmirel, hopes to build enough social housing to make it 40 percent of the city’s total housing stock. She’s also pledged to crack down on real estate speculation. The race between the two could shed light on whether the future of the French left lies in the center or at the extremes. In Boumrane, the Socialists have a charismatic leader. He is 52 years old, with a beat-the-odds story that lends itself well to a national campaign. His journey from child of Moroccan immigrants growing up in a rough part of Saint-Ouen to city leader certainly caught attention of the foreign press in the run-up to the Olympics. Bouamrane’s moderate politics include a push for his party to stop fighting Macron’s decision to raise the retirement age in 2023 and he supports more cross-partisan work with the current center-right government. That approach stands in sharp contrast to the ideologically rigid France Unbowed. The party’s firebrand leader Mélenchon scored 51.82 percent of the vote in Saint-Ouen during his last presidential run in 2022, and France Unbowed landed over 35 percent — more than three times its national average — there in the European election two years later, a race in which it usually struggles. Mélenchon and France Unbowed’s campaign tactics are laser-focused on specific segments that support him en masse despite his divisive nature: a mix of educated, green-minded young voters and working-class urban populations, often of immigrant descent. In other words: the yuppies moving to Saint-Ouen and the people who were their before gentrification. France Unbowed needs their continued support to become a durable force, or it may crumble like the grassroots movements born in the early 2010s, including Spain’s Podemos or Greece’s Syriza. But if the Socialists can’t win a left-leaning suburb with a popular incumbent on the ballot, where can they win?