French presidential elections results in Paris city (1969-2022)

[buritobr]

Here we can see the french presidential results in Paris from 1969 to 2022
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dD3j_ZO_95I

We can see that the capital voted on the right of the country until 1995. Giscard d'Estaing had a bigger margin in the city than in the country in 1974. Chirac won Paris in the 1st round in 1981, Giscard d'Estaing won the runoff. Mitterrand lost Paris in 1988.
The pattern changed in 2007. Sarkozy had a narrower margin in Paris than in the rest of the country. Hollande had a bigger margin in the capital.
In the first round of 2022, Melenchon had 30% in Paris.

[Republican Party Stalwart]

Have you been able to find any hypotheses anywhere as to why?

Also, its interesting to look for any precedents to this. During the revolution, my understanding is that Paris and surrounds was the most leftist and pro-Revolutionary area in the country (being the most cosmopolitan and the center of political thought in general) with rightist revolts mostly happening in rural areas happening in places like Brittany (which, in addition to being "more rural," has also always had a strong regional identity) and the Vendee.

Of course, on a similar yet very different note, Paris and the broader Ile-de-France region (plus Orleans and Reims) was historically the natural center and strongest area of royal authority of the country, whereas everywhere else in the country was more decentralized to various degrees (see the "Mad War," the various medieval Anglo/Norman/Angevin Wars, etc.). You can't really map "left" or "right" onto this, but if you really wanted to stretch, you could ambitiously label the royal authorities "right" and the feudal authorities "proto-left" or "proto-liberal."

[Antonio the Sixth]

Have you been able to find any hypotheses anywhere as to why?

Paris made a hard turn toward the right around the end of the 19th century, when the French political system realigned along lines of revanchist nationalism vs pluralistic liberalism (see the Boulangist crisis and the Dreyfus Affair). Paris had always been fiercely patriotic and didn't stomach the Third Republic's turn toward a less aggressive diplomacy. General populist discontent with parliamentary corruption did the rest. Later in the 20th century, Paris was a predominantly bourgeois city at a time when the Social Question became more prominent (the far eastern working-class neighborhoods were among the first communist strongholds, but the West and Center were staunchly right-wing). This carried over to the postwar era, and in 1977 Chirac was elected mayor there and proceeded to make it his political base, so in every election he ran in he always could count on a favorite-son effect. However, already by the time of his election as President the tide was starting to turn, as Paris' character became less bourgeois and more "bobo" (ie less of the capitalist high bourgeoisie and more the intellectual, professional middle class) and in 2001 the mayorship flipped to the left in a shocking upset. Since then the city has increasingly zoomed to the left and there's definitely shades of the global trends toward left-globalist large metropoles vs right-populist peripheries emerging there. Even Macron's neoliberal pseudo-centrism seems to be losing ground there, having just replaced the old French right in its Western strongholds, and Mélenchon did ridiculously well for a radical leftist.

[𝕭𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖆 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖔𝖑𝖆]

Since then the city has increasingly zoomed to the left and there's definitely shades of the global trends toward left-globalist large metropoles vs right-populist peripheries emerging there. Even Macron's neoliberal pseudo-centrism seems to be losing ground there, having just replaced the old French right in its Western strongholds, and Mélenchon did ridiculously well for a radical leftist.

This is perhaps tangential, but I have noticed that in both 2017 and 2022 Le Pen, while being destroyed everywhere, did slightly but noticeably better precisely in those Western strongholds - the notorious seizième was her best arrondissement in both runoffs. Of course she still polled worse than pretty much anywhere outside the city proper, but this suggests that despite those trends the section of large metropole dwellers most receptive towards right-wing nationalism is still the same.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Since then the city has increasingly zoomed to the left and there's definitely shades of the global trends toward left-globalist large metropoles vs right-populist peripheries emerging there. Even Macron's neoliberal pseudo-centrism seems to be losing ground there, having just replaced the old French right in its Western strongholds, and Mélenchon did ridiculously well for a radical leftist.

This is perhaps tangential, but I have noticed that in both 2017 and 2022 Le Pen, while being destroyed everywhere, did slightly but noticeably better precisely in those Western strongholds - the notorious seizième was her best arrondissement in both runoffs. Of course she still polled worse than pretty much anywhere outside the city proper, but this suggests that despite those trends the section of large metropole dwellers most receptive towards right-wing nationalism is still the same.

Right, and this is all the more remarkable in 2022 because you had Zemmour noticeably overperforming in those same neighborhoods - so if anything you'd expect Le Pen to do worse there.

[UWS]

Chirac was Mayor of Paris so it helped him a lot to win Paris in the elections in which he ran for President. In 2002 when President Chirac faced Jean-Marie LePen in the second round Paris overwhelmingly voted for Chirac from both the left as well as the mainstream traditional right. Chirac won 90% of the Parisian in this presidential election*
https://www.politiquemania.com/presidentielles-2002-departement-paris.html