Emmanuel Macron said he was in favor of a reform of the PLM law, so that the mayors of Paris, Lyon and Marseille are elected by direct universal suffrage.
Since 1982, the inhabitants of Paris, Lyon and Marseille have not directly elected the mayor of the city. Elections by direct universal suffrage are organized only at the district level. It is then the elected representatives of the districts who vote for the councilor of the main town hall. An exceptional electoral rule that Emmanuel Macron said he was in favor of changing by 2026, the year of the next municipal elections.
The reform of the so-called PLM law (Paris-Lyon-Marseille) has actually been in the drawers of the macronie for some time. Paris MP Sylvain Maillard was preparing a text scheduled for the end of 2023, before the debates on the immigration law delayed the agenda of the presidential majority. In November 2022, Secretary of State Marlène Schiappa indicated that the Ministry of the Interior was already planning a reform. The arrival of Rachida Dati to the government has put the subject back on the table: the new Minister of Culture is officially a candidate for mayor of the capital.
“The only thing I want for Paris is that a voter can have the same rights and count as much as in Amiens, Besançon or elsewhere, and therefore that the government can decide on an in-depth reform of the law Paris-Lyon-Marseille to return to common law,” declared Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday January 16, during his major press conference at the Elysée.
“There is no reason why Parisians should not choose their mayor. When they put a ballot in the ballot box, they do not choose the person they want to see at the head of Paris. This is important “, added Rachidat Dati the next day on RTL.
The executive will, however, have to hurry to initiate the reform: to be active from the next municipal elections, it would have to come into force at the latest one year before the election scheduled for spring 2026.