By Michel Rose and Ingrid Melander
PARIS/MARSEILLE, March 22 (Reuters) - France's far-right National Rally (RN) fell short of taking control of the southern cities of Marseille and Toulon, exit polls showed on Sunday, in municipal elections that gave hope to embattled mainstream parties.
Meanwhile, Socialist Party candidate Emmanuel Gregoire easily beat conservative former minister Rachida Dati in Paris' mayoral race, two exit polls showed.
The thousands of separate municipal ballots are often focused on very local issues and their outcome does not forecast who will win in the April 2027 presidential election to succeed centrist President Emmanuel Macron.
But they show trends in popularity and in the type of alliances that can be struck in an increasingly fragmented political landscape, and senior politicians from all parties were quick to claim Sunday's results were good news for them.
NEXT STEP: THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION
Senior RN officials rejected suggestions that the party’s defeat in Toulon showed it had hit a "glass ceiling" ahead of next year's presidential election, saying it had won dozens of local constituencies where it previously had no presence.
"The National Rally and its candidates have achieved tonight, in this municipal election, the biggest breakthrough in its entire history," RN chief Jordan Bardella said.
In the first round, his anti-immigration party won re-election in the southern city of Perpignan and won smaller cities too.
And on Sunday, Eric Ciotti, a former mainstream conservative who is now an ally of the RN, won in Nice, France's fifth-biggest city, exit polls showed.
With wins projected in France's two biggest cities, Paris and Marseille, the Socialist Party, which is weakened nationally, saw reasons to hope.
"Only the left can prevent France from this regression," Socialist Party chief Olivier Faure said.
Senior politicians on the mainstream right said the municipal elections showed they needed to be united to win - especially in next year's presidential election.
Former Prime Minister Edouard Philippe was re-elected mayor in his northern city of Le Havre, according to TF1 and LCI broadcasters, delivering a better-than-expected performance that boosts his hopes of running for president in 2027.
Philippe, a centre-right politician who served as prime minister under the centrist Macron, made a speech with a clear national message, saying his victory showed "there were reasons to be hopeful" in the values of France and that the extremes can be beaten.
MARSEILLE, PARIS
In the second-biggest city Marseille, the incumbent, Socialist Mayor Benoit Payan, was re-elected with 56.3% of the votes, according to an Elabe poll for BFM TV. Other polls also showed him winning.
The RN's chances of winning the biggest prize it coveted - Marseille - had taken a hit when hard-left candidate Sebastien Delogu of France Unbowed (LFI) withdrew from the second round out of concern that splitting the left's vote could help the RN.
In Toulon, centre-right candidate Josée Massi led with 53.5%, ahead of the RN with 46.5%, according to an Elabe poll for BFM TV. RN candidate Laure Lavalette conceded defeat.
The Socialist Party said it had beaten Francois Bayrou, another center-right former prime minister of Macron, in the city of Pau.
LFI looked set to win in Roubaix, a city of nearly 100,000 in northern France, an Ifop-Fiducial poll for TF1, LCI and Sud Radio showed, in good news for a party that had so far not focused much on local elections.
"Traditional parties are losing ground," Manuel Bompard, of LFI, said.
(Additional reporting by Juliette Jabkhiro in Marseille, Gianluca Lo Nostro, Sudip Kar-Gupta, Inti Landauro, Elizabeth Pineau, Gus Trompiz and John Irish in Paris; Writing by Ingrid Melander; Editing by Michel Rose, Mark Porter, Peter Graff and Diane Craft)
