Champagne Socialist
In Reims, left-wing candidate Éric Quénard has united a broad coalition to challenge incumbent mayor Arnaud Robinet, casting the race as a fight against top-down rule in France’s “City of Kings.”
For nearly a millennium, Reims stood as France’s “City of Kings.” Inside the soaring nave of Reims Cathedral, monarchs processed beneath stained glass and incense to claim the French crown. From Clovis I—whose baptism helped anchor the alliance between the French monarchy and the Catholic Church—to Charles X, nearly every French king was consecrated here in ceremonies meant to signal divine authority as much as political power.
That tradition unraveled in 1830. When Charles X attempted to tighten royal control, Parisians rose up during the July Revolution and forced him from the throne. The fall of France’s last crowned king seemed to close the chapter on rule from above—at least in theory.
Nearly two centuries later, echoes of that struggle over authority are surfacing again in the streets of Reims—this time in municipal politics.
In Reims, left-wing unity candidate Éric Quénard is attempting to rally a fractured progressive camp against incumbent mayor Arnaud Robinet, a center-right figure often compared to former prime minister Édouard Philippe and a member of his party. In the lead up to the upcoming mayoral elections, to be held in two rounds on March 15 and 22, Quénard has stitched together a coalition of nine left-wing groups, pitching the race not simply as a local election but as a referendum on how power is exercised in a city once synonymous with royal authority.
Standing in his modest campaign office, Quénard casts the contest in almost monarchical terms.
“Today the mayor operates a bit like a lord ruling over his subjects,” he tells me. “The mayor decides, and the people of Reims simply carry it out.”
For Quénard, the campaign hinges on reversing that dynamic—replacing what he describes as a “vertical” style of governance with participatory politics, from citizen budgets to neighborhood decision-making. In a city once defined by coronations, he argues, the next political transformation should come not from a throne but from the citizenry.
Quénard — much like, in a very different context, New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani — has made free public transport the backbone of his underdog campaign. The Reims mayor proposes a gradual adoption of this policy, starting with discounted fares, and then proceeding to age-based rates, free transport on weekends, and eventually universal free transit. But, as he explains to Becoming French, he also wants to invest in public housing — including building a “21st-century garden city” inspired by early 20th-century social housing in Reims — cycle lanes and urban forests.
He faces an uphill battle. In 2020, in elections that were slightly postponed due to the outbreak of Covid-19, Quénard’s main opponent Robinet handily won election for a second term — winning two-thirds of the votes in the first round. Robinet has said that during his mandate, Reims made strides as a sustainable and smart city, while also maintaining a balanced budget. He has been criticized for an overly “securitarian” approach to public safety, such as through the installation of CCTV cameras in the downtown.
Despite a lack of polling (in France, political parties, newspapers and think-tanks can request opinion polls for a fee), Quénard insists that his coalition, which runs from the Communist Party (PCF) to the center-left Place publique (the party of French MEP Raphaël Glucksmann), has a chance — in part to competition to the right of Robinet.
Running to the rightward extreme, National Rally MEP Anne‑Sophie Frigout has campaigned against ecological measures such as low‑emission zones, which she says harm drivers, and, in keeping with her party, for stricter security measures to crack down on delinquency.
“The far right is rising because people feel the policies put in place haven’t answered their expectations,” Quénard explains. “They’ve tried the right, they’ve tried the left, and they tell themselves: the only thing we haven’t tried yet is the far right.”
A strong showing for the far-right in Reims would be a major shake-up. In 2022’s presidential elections, an overwhelming majority voted for Emmanuel Macron in the run-off with Marine Le Pen. But the following years have seen the far-right regroup and increasingly take on smaller French cities where incomes and quality of life feel, to residents, to have stagnated.
Despite its outward appearance of glitz and glamor, France’s Champagne region is one of France’s poorest and most unequal. In Reims, roughly one in four people live below the poverty line. And, as in many parts of the country, the results of the upcoming elections might hinge on which candidate is able to get out the vote in some of the city’s poorer neighborhoods. Will Quénard be able to convince them, or might they fall under the charm of Frigout? A high abstention rate would almost certainly benefit Robinet, the incumbent.
In recent weeks, Quénard’s focus has centered on these populations, the candidate says:
“We’re talking about people who work small jobs and don’t make a living from their wages. We’re talking about people who sleep outdoors—the homeless, refugees. What I want is for us to have a comprehensive approach to the issue of housing, to integration, and to support for individuals.”
Going back to the basics, Quénard has presented himself as a unifier and a man of the people. In his early 50s, with white hair and square glasses, Quénard was born and raised in Reims. For nine years, he served as a parliamentary assistant in the European Parliament to Adeline Hazan, Reims’ Socialist mayor from 2008 to 2014. His electoral list includes Remois and Remoises from all walks of life. Mathieu Picard, the director of the non-profit Club de prévention d’Épernay, which works with vulnerable populations and Léa Robinet, an 18-year-old education activist, stand out as two examples civil society leaders who have joined the campaign.
“The people of Reims are ready to take part in running their city. They don’t want decisions imposed from above,” Quénard concludes.
Whether Reims is ready for a Champagne Socialist, on the other hand, will become a lot clearer this coming Sunday.
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