AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
Thirty-six thousand municipalities across France, from major cities to tiny hamlets, will choose their mayor today in a two-round election. French voters are more fragmented than ever, with the largest voting blocs on the extremes. NPR's Eleanor Beardsley reports the election could be a harbinger for next year's presidential race.
UNIDENTIFIED VENDOR: (Speaking French).
ELEANOR BEARDSLEY, BYLINE: At a street market in Paris' well-heeled 7th arrondissement, retiree Edith Daubert (ph) says the city has been ruined by 25 years of leftist green rule. She says the focus on evicting cars and creating bike lanes hurt businesses, and the list goes on.
EDITH DAUBERT: Paris is really falling down. It's really dirty, insecurity.
BEARDSLEY: She complains about crime and a proliferation of public housing that she says chased families from the city. Daubert is counting on right-wing candidate Sarah Knafo, who's campaigning here today, to take Paris back.
So how are things going?
SARAH KNAFO: Very good. Thanks.
BEARDSLEY: I asked Sarah Knafo about her slogan - a happy city.
KNAFO: (Through interpreter) It means a city where, first off, you can find housing. And it means a safe city and a city where you want to start a family, a city that doesn't take all your money in taxes.
BEARDSLEY: The 32-year-old studied at l'ENA, the French equivalent of Harvard. She's a first-time candidate for the anti-immigration party Reconquete, and she's soaring in the polls. Abraham Ben Fredj (ph) is a supporter.
ABRAHAM BEN FREDJ: Nothing in the party is racist, but we are for the assimilation. What it means is that wherever you come from, as soon as you decide to become, like, a French citizen, to behave like a French, to love the flag and what we do, you can be like us.
BEARDSLEY: These affluent Parisians say the mainstream right betrayed voters, but they want nothing to do with Marine Le Pen's working-class far-right party either. They say it rejects free market principles. Political analyst Jean-Yves Camus says France's two far-right movements differ on immigration, where Reconquete takes a harder line, and the economy, where Le Pen's Rassemblement National embraces more socialist policies.
JEAN-YVES CAMUS: The Rassemblement National mostly appeals to the lower class, to the working class. It also appeals to a lot of disgruntled people.
BEARDSLEY: People who live in former factory towns. Outside of affluent Paris, Le Pen's party is surging and poised to take three major southern cities - Nice, Marseille and Toulon - as well as smaller towns in between. Camus.
CAMUS: At the end of it, when you win several small cities, you control an entire area.
BEARDSLEY: The far left is hoping to take a swath of towns in the north, but it's been damaged by the behavior of its controversial leader, Jean-Luc Melenchon.
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JEAN-LUC MELENCHON: (Speaking French).
BEARDSLEY: At a rally in February, the conspiracy-minded Melenchon implied that the media's pronunciation of Jeffrey Epstein's name pointed to some sort of plot. Camus says his comments were seen as antisemitic.
CAMUS: Melenchon has really gone too far recently.
BEARDSLEY: France's large Jewish community has flocked to Reconquete and Knafo. Camus says Jews see it as the only party that will protect them. Still, the Socialist-Green coalition is leading the Paris race, with the mainstream conservative candidate in close second.
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RACHIDA DATI: (Speaking French).
BEARDSLEY: Polls show conservative Rachida Dati, speaking here on TV, would win if she allies with Knafo's Reconquete for the run-off March 22. Dati has so far refused. But critics say for the first time ever, the far right could be the kingmaker in the Paris mayoral race.
Eleanor Beardsley, NPR News, Paris. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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