The senatorial elections of September 27, 2026 are shaping up to be highly contested in the Alpes-Maritimes. With five seats up for grabs, several candidacies have already been announced. Who are these political personalities who aspire to this position?
The Alpes-Maritimes department will renew its five seats next month in the Upper House. In a landscape predominantly right-wing, the college of major electors must choose between a divided right and a left attempting to gain prominence.
Six years earlier, The Republicans (LR) had won all the seats. Since Éric Ciotti’s establishment in Nice with the Union of the Right for the Republic (UDR), and his alliance with the National Rally (RN), the political landscape has greatly evolved on the Côte d’Azur. The 2026 municipal elections notably flipped Nice, Menton and Cagnes-sur-Mer, changing the local political balance. In the Alpes-Maritimes, it is the 2,500 local elected officials who will determine who the next senators will be.
A fragmented right
Since the creation of the UDR in August 2024, the right is no longer united at all in the Alpes-Maritimes. Proof of this is among the LR. The National Investment Commission (CNI) validated the two lists led by the two outgoing senators: Dominique Estrosi-Sassone and Alexandra Borchio-Fontimp.
The latter nonetheless seemed ready to run without her party’s endorsement. If the two outgoing Senators had made a joint list, gender parity would have required one of them to declare herself list leader and the other third, shakily jeopardizing her mandate.
Facing these two lists, Professor Laurent Castillo, Member of the European Parliament, is the lead candidate for the UDR-RN alliance. He is followed by the Deputy Mayor of Nice, Gaëlle Frontoni, and the outgoing senator Henri Leroy who joined the aforementioned alliance. For the medical professor’s list, the challenge is to confirm the progress of the UDR-RN alliance in the Alpes-Maritimes department, inevitably putting an end to the LR’s clean sweep.
A left struggling to find its place
Although the department is predominantly right-wing, La France Insoumise (LFI) already has a complete list. At the head is Adrien Nouet, opposition municipal councilor of Antibes, who carries their voice.
On the other side, the French Communist Party (PCF) and the Socialist Party (PS) are in alliance. It is the sole communist mayor of the Alpes-Maritimes, Francis Tujague, mayor of Contes, who leads the list. Jean-Christophe Picard meanwhile has mentioned going it alone, leading his own senatorial list for the Ecologists party.
The candidate lists must be complete with five senators and two substitutes on each. They can file them from September 7 to 11 at the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes.
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