00:00Watching that report with me in the studio is our French politics editor, Marc Perriman.
00:04Marc, the deadline is tonight at 6 p.m. for what decisions have been made in regards to various alliances.
00:12So what more have you heard?
00:13Well, clearly the election is on Sunday, but in a large part it's happening today
00:18because the number of lists the decision to merge or not will determine in a large extent the result on
00:26Sunday.
00:27So we saw on the right two things have happened.
00:31One we saw in the report was the merger between Rashida Dati's list and the one from the center-right
00:37candidate Pierre-Yves Bournav-Zell
00:39who has been under tremendous pressure, including from President Macron himself, to do so.
00:45What has happened just in the last few minutes is that Sarah Knafo, the candidate from the far right,
00:52who is asking to be included in the alliance, has decided to drop out of the race.
00:58So she will not be a candidate anymore on Sunday.
01:03So this means that, in effect, it's very good news for Rashida Dati because, one,
01:08she doesn't have a potential rival on the far right, and she doesn't have the rival on the center-right
01:16because they merged together.
01:19So despite having a dismal performance last Sunday, she now can gain some momentum.
01:25Obviously, it's not pure math.
01:27The votes, for one, don't necessarily go to the other candidates, but she is in a good position.
01:36On the left, Emmanuel Grégoire has stood his ground.
01:39He has said he would not ally himself with the far-left candidate, Sofia Shikiru.
01:45She's begged him to merge the list, saying, you know, we need to unite in front of the right.
01:51He said, well, you've kept insulting me all campaign long.
01:55You said you don't want a socialist mayor, so I'm not going to ally myself with her.
02:00So what could still happen between now and 6 p.m. is that Sofia Shikiru could decide to pull out
02:07of the race
02:07and, hence, favor Emmanuel Grégoire.
02:11So this means that it's impossible today to tell you who the next mayor of Paris will be.
02:17We'll have to wait for Sunday night.
02:19Indeed. Now, in the meantime, what's the state of alliances for the rest of the country?
02:22Well, obviously, it's a situation you cannot analyze from a national standpoint
02:28because those are purely local elections, and there are a number of very different situations.
02:33Another interesting situation is in Marseille, where you also have a very tight race.
02:38This time, the outgoing mayor, the leftist, Benoît Payon, is toe-to-toe with the candidate from the national rally,
02:47Franck Alizio.
02:49It's really a very tight race.
02:51There, a couple of hours ago, the candidate from France and Baal, from the far left, Sébastien de L'Aiguille,
03:00he decided to withdraw from the race, thus enhancing the chances of the socialist mayor to win,
03:07because on the other side, the candidate from the Conservative Party, Martine Vassal, who scored 12 percent,
03:15she said she would remain in the race, possibly taking votes away from the national rallies.
03:21We'll see what happens.
03:22In many other situations, there have been times when there was an alliance made between the left and the far
03:33left,
03:33despite the national party, the national socialist party, saying we don't want to have anything to do with France and
03:41Baal anymore,
03:42especially with some of the declarations of its leader, Jean-Luc Mélenchon.
03:47The socialist party said in writing that they were anti-Semitic, but nevertheless, when push comes to shove,
03:54if you need to find voices and votes for the second round, there are some alliances happening on the left.
04:02The right is saying, the left is lying, they say we're not going to ally ourselves with the far left,
04:08but it is happening in some places, not everywhere, not in Marseille, not in Paris,
04:13but we'll have to see the results on Sunday night.
04:17It will be a patchwork, and it's impossible to draw from the results of this election
04:23any lessons, really, for next year's presidential election.
04:27It's a totally different election.
04:30Just bear in mind that the candidate for the national rally in Paris scored 1.5%,
04:36and I can guarantee this, this will not be the score of the national rally in next year's presidential election.
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