As French voters head to the polls for municipal elections, mayors are presenting their programs for the next six years. Yet many pressures are weighing on these local representatives, with many stepping down before their terms expire. Resignations of mayors are currently at an all-time high. We take a closer look in this edition of France in Focus.
According to a recent report by Cevipof, conflicts within municipal councils are the main reason for the resignation of French mayors.
Jean-Jacques Noël was mayor of the village of Cirey-lès-Bellevaux in Haute-Saône for 15 years, but he resigned in 2023 “due to deep disagreements” with three town council members. He says the political climate has become increasingly harsh and often polarised: “Before, the atmosphere in council meetings was cordial. Now, it’s a fight. We see at the national level – when they tear each other apart in the National Assembly – being repeated at the local level. It’s awful.”
Fatigue of elected officials in rural areas
For Noel, it’s a family tradition: his father, grandfather and great-grandfather were also vein mayors. But after generations, shops and public services are disappearing from the village centre. “The mayor used to chat with residents at the local bar; we deal with problems head-on and solve problems. Today, there are really no places for people to gather in villages, and things just come out at scale on social media.” The former mayor laments the increasing lack of human interaction, which has been replaced by administrative tasks: “Mayors spend too much time on paperwork; we fill it with tons. It’s a bureaucratic nightmare and the rules are always changing.”
Prioritize health and family life
Helping an old man who fell in the middle of the night, cutting down a tree after a storm… Noel is always there for his constituents. “The mayor’s workload is just too big. By resigning, I was looking after my health. I already had a stroke in 2011; I didn’t want to have a second one.”
Sophie Rivens was the first female mayor of the village of Les Adrets in the Alps, and like Jean-Jacques, she juggled her mayoral duties with her job – a managerial position at a hospital, working nights. She resigned in 2022, just two years after she was elected, tired of the role: “I was missing so many family moments, and even when I was there, I was always involved in some municipal issue. I felt like I was walking away from my daughters’ lives — it was unthinkable for me.”
The mayor’s allowance alone was not enough to allow her to quit her job and devote herself fully to her municipal duties. But from December 2025, the mayor’s allowances have been increased thanks to a new law.
Among other things, it allows these allowances to be combined with maternity or paternity leave benefits. A new legislation on the status of local elected officials was passed on December 22, 2025.
Rudeness and violence
Local representatives are at the forefront, within range of angry citizens. As such, they are often subjected to harassment and violence. In 2024, 82 percent of attacks on elected officials were directed at mayors and councilors, while 13 percent were directed at members of parliament and senators.
Jean-Claude Nevers was elected mayor of Montfleur in 2014 and received threatening letters in the following years. In October 2022, he also found these words spray-painted in the town’s cemetery: “Never, you shall die.” Three vehicles belonging to the corporation members were also set on fire. For the former mayor, the most shocking incident remains the fire at the town hall on the night of January 26, 2023. “There were two separate sources of blaze, and we found an accelerant agent that was used to make the fire as intense as possible. That’s evidence that it was arson.” Nevers didn’t immediately resign, saying, “Those who do this kind of thing shouldn’t be given in.” A particularly brutal council meeting at the end of 2025 was the last straw. In December 2025, he submitted his resignation, which was accepted by the prefect in January 2026, two months before the end of his term.
In 2023, the shock resignation after an arson attack on the home of the mayor of Saint-Brevin-les-Pins led to several measures: the Center for the Analysis and Prevention of Attacks on Elected Officials (CALAE) was created, with some safeguards. In 2024, a new law increased penalties for assaulting elected officials.
(tags to translate)France
