Following a petition by La France Insoumise (LFI) and Union des Droites pour la République (UDR) acting with Éric Ciotti, the Conseil d’État today rejected their requests to annul the Minister of the Interior’s circular of 2 February 2026, assigning political affiliations to candidates for presenting the results of the municipal elections on 15 and 22 March. Given the political situation and the alliances at play in these elections, the Conseil d’État considered that the classification of LFI in the "far-left" block and that of the UDR in the "far-right" block did not disclose a manifest error of assessment by the Minister.
Following a petition by La France Insoumise (LFI) and Union des Droites pour la République (UDR) acting with Mr Eric Ciotti, the Conseil d’État today rejected their requests to annul the circular issued by the Minister of the Interior on 2 February 2026 on the attribution of political affiliations to candidates in the municipal elections to be held on 15 and 22 March.
According to a tradition dating back to the 19th century, the Minister of the Interior sends a circular to prefects with instructions on how to assign political affiliations to candidates and lists according to consistent rules across the country, so that the results can be aggregated at a national level and used to inform public authorities and citizens.
In the past, the Conseil d’État has often been asked to rule on these circulars by political parties or candidates criticising the classification assigned to them.
With regard to the attribution of political affiliations, the Conseil d’État does not pass judgement on the political programme or political label of candidates in elections. It assesses the legality of the Minister of the Interior's circular with the objective of informing public authorities and citizens about election results. In accordance with established case law, it will only censor a circular if it discloses a manifest error of assessment.
For the municipal elections to be held on 15 and 22 March 2026, the Minister of the Interior has, as in the past, defined the spectrum of political affiliations applicable to candidates and the lists they represent, as well as grouping these categories into six ideological blocks: far left, left, miscellaneous, centre, right and far right. The Conseil d’État ruled that the dividing up of the entire political spectrum and the assigning of political parties to these blocks according to their respective political positions in relation to one another did not disclose any manifest error.
In view of the political situation for the 2026 municipal elections and the alliances pertaining to these elections, the Conseil d’État also considered that neither the classification of LFI in the "far-left" block nor that of UDR in the "far-right" block disclosed any manifest error of assessment.
To conclude, and in accordance with prior case law, the Conseil d’État confirmed in its decision today that the Minister of the Interior was able, without disclosing any manifest error of assessment, to limit the allocation of political affiliations to municipalities with more than 3,500 inhabitants and to municipalities that are district capitals, regardless of their population, as has been the case for all municipal elections since 1982, except in 2014, when this threshold was lowered to 1,000 inhabitants.
Consequently, the Conseil d’État rejected the appeals lodged by LFI, and UDR together with Mr Ciotti.
Decisions Nos. 512694, 512695, 512981, 512983