By Gianluca Lo Nostro and Michel Rose
PARIS, March 15 (Reuters) - Marseille's leftist mayor and his far-right rival were tied in Sunday's first-round municipal election, exit polls showed, boosting the nationalist National Rally's (RN) hopes of winning France's No. 2 city ahead of the 2027 presidential election.
A divisive anti-immigration and eurosceptic party, the RN is now France's largest parliamentary bloc and polls suggest it could win the presidency next year. It has long struggled to build a power base across French towns and cities, but Marseille's stark security situation has given the party hope of scoring a once-unthinkable victory there.
The vote in Marseille was one of the most closely watched battles in France's March 15/March 22 municipal elections, in which voters will elect the leaders of some 35,000 towns and cities. The vote serves as a test of the strength of the far-right and the resilience of mainstream parties going into next year's presidential election.
Marseille has become the epicentre of France's battle with growing drug crime, and polls show security is the top concern for voters in the nationwide elections, a trend that is seen benefiting the RN and its tough-on-crime rhetoric.
Incumbent Socialist Mayor Benoit Payan was seen with 35.4% of the Marseille vote, Ipsos said, with the RN's Franck Allisio also on 35.4%. Other exit polls gave Payan a slight lead.
A candidate from the far-left France Unbowed and from a centrist coalition also made the run-off, resulting in a four-way second-round vote that is hard to predict.
Candidates are likely to jostle to form alliances or drop out ahead of next Sunday's run-off, which is expected to dictate who seizes victory in many of the tightest races across France.
"We call on all the women and men of Marseille - join us. Let us unite to defeat the left and the far left," Allisio said after the results came in. "Where they have let insecurity run rampant, we will restore order."
SIGNS OF MAINSTREAM PARTY RESILIENCE
RN President Jordan Bardella said the party did well in many municipalities around France, as the country awaited results.
Exit polls showed the party had won Perpignan near the Spanish border in the first round itself, reclaiming one of the biggest cities it already controls. Its candidate in the southern city of Toulon, a larger city it had also set its sights on, came first in the first-round vote.
There were signs of resilience among mainstream parties, however.
In Paris, Socialist Emmanuel Gregoire came in first, with a significant lead over conservative former minister Rachida Dati, while the rising star of the far-right, Sarah Knafo, was awaiting official results to see if she would hit the 10% threshold needed to reach a run-off.
Former French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe came first in his northern city of Le Havre, delivering a better-than-expected performance that boosts his hopes of running for president in 2027.
Philippe, President Emmanuel Macron's premier until 2020, is seen as one of the few centrist candidates capable of beating the RN in 2027, and had said he would not run next year if he failed to secure re-election in Le Havre.
"Elections are not polls. In a democracy, it is the voters who decide," he said.
(Reporting by Ingrid Melander, Juliette Jabkhiro, Leigh Thomas, Michel Rose, Layli Foroudi, Manon Cruz, Makini Brice; Writing by Ingrid Melander and Gabriel Stargardter; Editing by Andrei Khalip and Elaine Hardcastle, Diane Craft and Deepa Babington)
