Toulouse (France) (AFP) – In Toulouse, the aeronautics capital with galloping demographics, the outgoing diverse-right mayor Jean-Luc Moudenc is seeking a third consecutive term facing a split left between PS-Ecologists on one side and LFI on the other, who stigmatize a two-speed city.

Published on: 05/02/2026 - 08:27

In this city of 515,000 inhabitants, more than a million with the urban area, only one left-wing mayor, Pierre Cohen (PS, 2008-2014), was elected over the last half-century, dominated by the Baudis dynasty (Pierre then Dominique) and their heirs Philippe Douste-Blazy and Jean-Luc Moudenc.

“It is a paradoxical city. While during national, regional and departmental elections, Toulouse residents vote on the left, they have more often elected mayors classified on the right,” notes political scientist Jean-Michel Ducomte.

At the head of a gathering of PS, Ecologists, PC, PRG and Place Publique, François Briançon, 60, business manager and boss of the socialist federation (pro-Olivier Faure) of Haute-Garonne, intends to hasten "the end of a cycle", committing to building 15,000 social housing units and a "green star" of vegetation to protect the city in heat waves.

François Piquemal, a 41-year-old LFI deputy, allied with the NPA and the Neighborhood Assembly, a local association, proposes in his program rent control and free public transport for those under 26. He wants to embody a “new left, like Toulouse and its diversity”.

Attractiveness

Mayor since 2014 after completing Douste-Blazy's mandate from 2004 to 2008, Jean-Luc Moudenc named his list "Let's protect the future" and stands as a bulwark against an arrival of the Mélenchonists at the Capitol, seat of the town hall, which according to him would be a brake on the attractiveness of the metropolis, "crucible of European civil aviation since 1917".

Toulouse will become the third city in France in 2027, according to INSEE, when its population will exceed that of Lyon. Its economic and demographic dynamism, "we owe it to this engine of development, of transformation of Toulouse that is aeronautics. (...) We have 86,000 jobs linked to aerospace", proudly greets the 65-year-old mayor without labels, former member of LR and the UMP.

For the socialist candidate François Briançon, the demographic growth of Toulouse, "neither controlled nor planned, is built over real estate opportunities", with the consequence "a two-speed city, the big losers of which are the peripheral districts".

If the socialist is elected, the presidency of Toulouse Métropole will go to his environmentalist ally Régis Godec, promoter of "shared densification" in the metropolis and the urban area.

Believing that inequalities are growing, the LFI candidate goes further, pleading for “demetropolisation” so that “small towns are revitalized”. We must “move away from the logic of competitiveness, attractiveness, metropolisation, excellence” to build a “more inclusive city, because 2,000 families leave each year, no longer able to find housing”.

The metropolis deserves more dynamism, “with Moudenc, we have the impression of being in an episode of Inspector Derrick”, quips the former municipal councilor.

Second round

If MM. Moudenc and Briançon are on the same line regarding the importance of the Bordeaux-Toulouse high-speed line, the commissioning of which is scheduled for 2032, Mr. Piquemal promises to reduce the financial contribution of the Toulouse community to this infrastructure.

In addition to a third metro line, which will contribute to relieving congestion in the city from 2028, there is unanimous support for the development of a metropolitan RER.

While the outgoing mayor wants to put his left-wing adversaries in the same bag - "one Francis can hide another" he says -, Mr. Briançon, keen to distance himself from LFI, remains evasive on a possible merger of the lists, while admitting that March 22 will "necessarily be a second round of gathering".

The only available poll, commissioned by the PS, in November credited the outgoing mayor with 33% of the votes in the first round, ahead of François Briançon (30%), François Piquemal (23%) and the RN candidate Julien Leonardelli (10%, the threshold to reach the second round).

While it only totaled 4.5% in 2020, the RN's score is one of the keys to the vote. His presence in the second round "could allow the reunified PS-LFI left to win the city", warns Mr. Moudenc, calling on RN voters to "not throw their anger into the ballot box".

© 2026 AFP

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