Senate elections will take place on September 27, 2026. In the Alpes-Maritimes, five seats are up for grabs and seven lists have been submitted. A ballot that comes after several local political developments, notably in Nice, Menton and Cagnes-sur-Mer.
The Alpes-Maritimes will renew their five Senate seats on September 27. Seven lists are officially running in the department, according to the list finalized by the prefecture on September 18. The electoral college has 2,093 Senate electors in the department.
The ballot takes place in a local political landscape that has evolved since the last Senate elections. Six years earlier, the five seats in the Alpes-Maritimes had been won by candidates from The Republicans. Since then, Éric Ciotti’s establishment in Nice with the Union of the Right for the Republic (UDR), as well as the alliance forged with the National Rally (RN), have changed the political balance on the Côte d’Azur.
The municipal elections of March 2026 also changed the local political map, notably with changes that took place in Nice, Menton and Cagnes-sur-Mer. For the Senate elections, however, voting is not open to all registered voters in the department. The choice of five senators falls to the electoral college of major electors.
Seven lists for five Senate seats
Among the seven lists competing, The best is yet to come for the Alpes-Maritimes is led by Laurent Castillo. The professor of medicine and Member of the European Parliament is in first position, ahead of Gaëlle Frontoni, deputy mayor of Nice, then Henri Leroy, outgoing senator. The list also includes Sophie Eckenberg, Rafael Quessada, Loetitia Loré and Francis Moya.
The candidacy is presented as that of the alliance between the UDR and the RN. The issue focuses notably on the representation of this new alliance in the Senate in a department where the five seats were previously held by the right wing from The Republicans.
Facing this list is notably Together for the Alpes-Maritimes, led by outgoing senator Alexandra Borchio Fontimp. Jean-Marc Delia, Patricia Demas, Gilles Cima, Marjorie Rosa, Christophe Ulivieri and Laurie Moretto-Allegret complete the list.
Dominique Estrosi-Sassone for her part leads The freedom to act for the Alpes-Maritimes. Bruno Pebeyre, Brigitte Lizee-Juan, Cyril Piazza, Johanna Tourian, Roger Ciais and Martine Phal appear on this list.
Three other lists are also running. #CommonCauses, led by Jean-Christophe Picard, brings together Émélie Leduc, Sébastien Remillieux, Elise Ferrari, Philippe Touzeau-Menoni, Marie-Christine Franc de Ferriere and Bertrand Lenoir.
United in our Municipalities for Peace is led by Livio Orsi, with Marie Laviolette, Pierre Franch, Océane Olmeta, Sameh Hassan, Elodie Sanches and Léo Haim.
Together living differently in the Alpes-Maritimes, led by Francis Tujague, brings together Fouzia Ayoub, Jean-Louis Fiori, Michèle Muratore, Jean Louis Alunno, Chantal Carrie and Cédric Garoyan.
Finally, Let’s bring the new popular front’s program into the Senate is led by Adrien Nouet. Leïla Tonnerre, Pierre Guennaz, Zohra Briand, Olivier Salerno, Solène Gomes and Jean-Paul Sozedde complete the list.
An indirect universal suffrage to elect senators
The 348 senators are elected for six years by indirect universal suffrage. Since 2011, the Senate is renewed by half every three years. In 2026, series 2 is renewed, that is 178 seats.
Voting is reserved for major electors. The electoral college is composed notably of deputies and senators, regional and departmental councillors as well as municipal councillors. On a national scale, approximately 162,000 major electors participate in the renewal of the Senate.
The ballot takes place in one round, without mixing or preferential voting. Seats are distributed according to the rule of the strongest average, based on the number of votes obtained by each list. Voters thus vote for a complete list and not for individual candidates.
This voting method distinguishes departments that elect at least three senators from those that elect only one or two. In the latter, a majority ballot with two rounds is organized. For the Alpes-Maritimes, the five seats thus result in the application of proportional representation.
The vote on September 27 will thus determine the new representation of the Alpes-Maritimes in the Senate. The five seats will be allocated based on the results obtained by the seven candidate lists.
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