2026 has been a year of elections for first tier local authorities both in France (March) and in England (May). Is there anything to be learned by comparing the two systems, and what might it mean for England’s councils to be elected in a more French way?

A brief summary of 10 key differences:

1. A wider range of council sizes

The commune is the basic unit of local government in France and it’s broadly equivalent to district or borough councils in England, with similar responsibilities. However, the population of a commune can vary enormously, from less than 100 to two million, with most being very small, and the average French commune is 90 times smaller than the average English district. This means there is a lot of inter-communal collaboration in France, with smaller councils pooling their resources to run some services through shared organisations. These are accountable to intercommunales or federated councils with representatives from all the member councils directly elected in the same municipal elections.

2. Elections for all councils at once

France’s municipal elections take place for every commune at the same time in the same year and these cover every part of the country. All voters have the chance to elect their full council in the same elections, unlike in England’s patchwork of different election years and full and partial elections.

3. No more council elections in France until 2032

The local council’s term of office in France is six years compared to four years in England, so the next municipal elections won’t be until 2032. By-elections only take place in exceptional circumstances (eg: multiple councillor resignations).

4. 30 times more councillors

Voters in France’s 34,000 communes elect around half a million councillors to compared to less than 13,500 across 317 councils in England. This means that around 1% of all French adults are elected councillors – compared to 0.03% in England. So a much higher proportion of people in France will be actively seeking election and representing their fellow citizens.

5. Every council led by a mayor

Every French commune has an elected maire (mayor) who heads the council and embodies and represents their community. They have both executive and ceremonial powers, rather like a mini president of the republic. When you vote for a list, you know who will become mayor if that list wins.

England has a mixture of council leaders, often the leader of the largest group, elected by the council from among their number; and some directly elected mayors who have a personal council-wide mandate. The term ‘mayor’ is also used for many ceremonial council chairs.

6. A list system

French voters choose between whole lists rather than individual candidates. Each list is headed by its candidate for mayor followed by a full slate of candidates in the order they will be elected – the nearest to the top having the best chance of success. The elected councillors then represent and serve the whole council area and, unlike in England, there are no ward councillors elected by first past the post (FPTP) for particular ‘mini constituencies’ within the council.

Although candidates for smaller French communes are often not affiliated to a party there are fewer ‘lone’ independents as these can’t generally put together a full list

7. Male / female parity on party lists and councils.

Lists in French council elections are required to alternate candidates by sex, meaning that there will be a fairly even balance of male and female councillors once they are elected, whichever lists they are drawn from.

8. Two rounds of voting

Voting takes place on two consecutive Sundays in March. All the lists stand in the first round, and some may be unopposed. If any list wins over 50% of the vote, it is declared the winner and there is no need for a second round. Only those lists achieving at least 10% of the vote have the right to go forward to contest the second round. The period between the two rounds allows parties and voters to reflect on the results of the first round and decide how best to achieve all or some of their political objectives. This could involve reaching agreement with other lists on a combined platform and presenting a merged list in the second round which includes candidates from the different original lists, or it can involve standing down and calling for a second-round vote for a better supported list. List mergers can be programmatic, with agreement about adjusted policies, or they may be technical, ensuring the election of councillors from both original lists but without necessarily achieving full agreement on all policies.

9. No ‘hung councils’ – a guaranteed majority for the leading list

The leading list in the second round wins control of the council, even without an overall majority of votes. The prime majoritaire (majority premium) system awards this list 50% of councillors, ensuring it has the opportunity to implement its programme and meaning that no council election results in a ‘no overall control’ political stalemate. It does mean that the winning list is often over-represented, with more councillors that they would have in a perfectly proportional system. It also means that any compromise or coalition-building between parties and their lists has to be negotiated between the rounds and put to the electorate in the second round, giving voters a further opportunity to choose their preferred list.

10. Representation of minority parties

While favouring the leading list, by granting it a majority, the French system also has an element of proportionality (dose proportionelle). The remaining 50% of seats are allocated to all the lists, including the leading list, in proportion to their votes. As a result, minority parties which contested the second round may actually get more representation than they would in the English FPTP system which also favours larger parties. This is because in English councils, smaller parties whose support is evenly spread across the local authority area are less likely to win any seats at all and can be unrepresented on a relatively high proportion of the vote.

How might the composition of English councils be different under the French electoral system?

I’ve picked two London boroughs, the one where I live (Waltham Forest) and a neighbouring one where I worked for many years (Newham), to model the different outcomes a French-style system would have given, both in this year’s council election and the previous one in 2022.

This can be done for any local authority in the country.

Waltham Forest 2022: ‘Labour au premier tour’

Labour has an overall majority with over 50% of the vote and benefits from over-representation due to FPTP in wards. The Greens and Lib Dems don’t get the representation a more proportional system would give them as their vote is more evenly spread than the Conservatives. A French-style single round would give Labour a similar majority but the Greens and Lib Dems would gain some representation.

Waltham Forest 2026: ‘Un deuxième tour serré’

Four years later the Labour vote has fallen sharply and the Greens have a slightly higher share of the vote without an overall majority. In a closely fought French-style second round, with no alliances, even if the entire Lib Dem vote goes to Labour, the Greens win narrowly on vote share, and benefit from the majority premium to gain a disproportional majority.

Newham 2022: ‘Labour au premier tour’

Labour is in a more dominant position than in Waltham Forest with only a couple of percentage more votes, and benefiting massively from First Past the Post in wards, leaving the Greens under-represented and the Conservatives unrepresented. A French style first round would give them both some representation.

Newham 2026: ‘Une alliance à gauche?’

Four years later, with Labour’s vote down even more sharply than in Waltham Forest, there is a three-way split with the Newham Independents and the Greens, leading to no overall control and two of the three largest parties need to vote together to win in the council. In a French-style second round, the key would be whether the two non-Labour parties could form an electoral alliance between the rounds with a single mayoral candidate and list which could defeat Labour. It also sees some Conservative and Reform councillors elected. No overall control is not an option and two very different outcomes are shown: with Labour in or out of control.

The reality is that Newham also has a separately directly elected executive mayor and Labour won this in a borough-wide FPTP contest on the same day with 30.4% of the vote.

Notes: 1. Single round, 2. Two rounds.

See also:

French Presidential election could Melenchon make it? (April 2022)

French elections 2022: Electing a French President (January 2022)