During his press conference on Tuesday, January 16, 2024, Emmanuel Macron pleaded for mayors of Paris, Lyon, and Marseille to be elected by direct universal suffrage, calling for a reform of the law to this end.
“The only thing I want for Paris is for an elector to have the same rights and count as much in Paris as in Amiens, Besançon or elsewhere. And therefore, the government and the parliament should be able to decide on a deep reform of the Paris-Lyon-Marseille law to return to common law,” said the head of the state, according to the Agence France Presse.
The news agency Reuters recalls that since a law passed in 1982, a particular mode of voting governs the three largest French cities: voters elect district or sector councilors who, for a third of them, sit on the city council and elect the mayor.
It is therefore possible to become mayor of one of these three cities by winning the strategic sectors and being a minority in votes.
