“I want to become mayor of all the people of Nice and all the people of Niçois“. Éric Ciotti officially announced that he was a candidate in the municipal election in the 5th City of France during the elections of March 15 and 22, 2026, during a live intervention from the Place Saint-Roch in Nice at the end of the 13-hour newspaper of TF1.
An announcement of candidacy that the deputy of the Alpes-Maritimes and president of the UDR (Union of the Rights for the Republic) accompanies with a slogan “the best is to come”, and a “letter to the Niçois” of twenty pages to detail his approach. It has been broadcast since this Wednesday on its Ciotti2026.fr website and social networks. It will be distributed from this Thursday morning to the Niçois. The duel between the current mayor Christian Estrosi, candidate for a fourth term, and Éric Ciotti is therefore officially launched. A battle that will be among the most watched at the national level.
Did you hesitate to introduce yourself in 2020. What is this time that pushes you to run for the town hall of Nice in 2026?
At the time, I thought that the moment had not come to open this debate head on. The political situation was different. With Christian Estrosi, we belonged to the same political family, even if, in reality, while staying in LR, he had changed in the macronist camp since 2017. I wanted perhaps a last chance to repair certain errors. But above all, I would say that the last mandate in the three that Christian Estrosi exerted is that of the budget skid, of the flight forward. It is the mandate of destruction of public facilities (Acropolis, Theater, Bowling, the Cinémathèque), whose cost of 500 million euros, which were financed by the Nice tax. It is the mark of a power that no longer has limits, no more safeguards. It is also a form of drift in a personal power, which made that the cult of the supreme being replaced a policy of proximity, solidarity, fraternity, listening, humility with the Niçois.
You send a letter to the Niçois. Why this form? What do you tell them?
I want to be the candidate for the proximity of the Niçois and the Niçois. This is why I want this direct link with them, without intermediary, without advertising page, without communication brochure. There was a mayor who destroyed. I want to be the candidate who builds and builds a new hope. I formulate new proposals in the letter.
What are your priorities for Nice?
Restore security, respect the money of the Niçois, act for proximity, carry a real economic development, have a responsible environmental policy, promote and redo Nice a lighthouse of culture. This goes through the National Theater of Nice at the Gare du Sud, a new Palais in Congress and Exhibition, a new prison, the doubling of the municipal police. I bring the commitment to erase the last increase in the 20%property tax, which occurred in the fall of 2024. These are concrete proposals, proposals on free parking for two hours, an air conditioning plan for schools, a crèche development plan for families.
If you are elected, what measures by Christian Estrosi will you cancel at the start of your mandate?
Erase the last increase in the 20%property tax.
You have built your notoriety on a national speech of firmness and budget cuts. How to translate this speech locally?
Restoring order in the street and in accounts will constitute the guideline of my campaign. It is completely compatible. We did it in the department. We have delended, we lowered the departmental property tax twice and we continued to invest. When you manage public money well, you don’t waste it, you get there. It is this policy that I want to conduct. Naturally, I am a candidate for the town hall of Nice, but also to the presidency of the metropolis. Today, most of the skills to change the lives of Niçoises and Niçoises are in the metropolis.
You want to lower taxes. How will you finance municipal projects in a city that you say very indebted?
There are management savings that will have to be done. We did it in the department without the quality of service being altered. The major events that cost millions, even tens of millions of repetitive euros for a day will no longer be my priority. Not to mention the waste of 10 to 15 million euros to finance a Formula 1 Grand Prix, millions of euros to finance TV shows, all that will be abandoned.
How do you intend to bring together a municipal team when the Nice right is fragmented?
My list is largely already formed. It is a list of men and women that I will choose according to their talent, their competence, their roots, beyond political labels. Nevertheless I am a man on the right and I am a man who wishes the union of the lines. The time has not come to announce names. But there will naturally be the Nice parliamentarians, the two Nice deputies [Christelle d’Intorni et Bernard Chaix] and the European deputy [Laurent Castillo]. They embody a most recent legitimacy.
What place do you give to local alliances, especially with the RN?
All men and women of good will who support me will have their place on this list. There will obviously be people from the RN. There is no agreement, things are done naturally.
How will you reconcile your responsibilities as a deputy and president of the UDR with a local campaign?
We will have six months of campaign. I will compete, as I have always done, my local and national responsibilities within six months. And of course, when I am mayor of Nice, I will leave my mandate in the National Assembly.
In the event of a fall in the government and a new dissolution of the National Assembly, will you abandon the 1st district that you have been holding for 18 years?
On September 8, I will vote without any hesitation against this government. Both against the Prime Minister and against the President of the Republic who appointed him. Afterwards, I’m not Madame Irma. Very clever the one who can know what Emmanuel Macron will do. What I want is that he resigns to give the floor to the people. I am not sure he has the height or the courage that General de Gaulle had.
If early legislative elections take place, they will intervene before the municipal elections. Have you ever thought about what you are going to do?
If this is the case, I will take my responsibilities to have an alternation at the national level.
So you will represent yourself in the 1st district?
I am today a candidate for the municipal election in Nice. And if the Niçoises and the Niçois, which I am sure, trust me, I will be their mayor in full time.
What does Nice represent for you personally and politically?
Nice is my city. This is where I was born. These are my personal, family roots. It’s my land. It’s my childhood. It’s my schooling. It is my university training. They are my friends, my family. And then, politically, it was Nice who gave me everything. My first elective mandate, I obtained it from the Niçoises and the Niçois in 2007.
What city do you want to leave to the Niçois in 2032, after a possible mandate?
I want to leave a more fraternal city, where the people of Nice flourish, where our ancients live happy with the certainty that their children and their grandchildren will live happy. I want to reinstall a local link with the Niçois, whether they are the central objective of my policy. That we preserve their purchasing power, therefore their money. That they have the public services they deserve.
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