Who runs local government in France?

France has almost 35,000 communes, more than any other EU country, each with an elected council and mayor, plus elected departments and regions above them. Alongside these elected bodies, the state is present everywhere through the prefect, an appointed official in each department and region. Most communes now pool many tasks in 'intercommunalities'. In some overseas territories, customary chiefs and kings have legal recognition.

French Republic · Unitary semi-presidential republic, constitutionally 'decentralised' · Western Europe

The levels of government below the nation

Level	How it is chosen	What it does
Regions (18: 13 in mainland France, including Corsica, and 5 overseas)	Regional council elected for six years; it elects its president	Economic development, secondary school (lycée) buildings, regional transport, vocational training.
Departments (101)	Departmental council elected (pairs of one man and one woman per canton); it elects its president	Social welfare (child protection, benefits for older and disabled people), lower-secondary school (collège) buildings, departmental roads.
Prefects (préfets) in each department and region	Appointed by decree of the President of the Republic in the Council of Ministers	Represent the state: public order, checking that local decisions are lawful (they can refer them to the administrative court), emergencies.
Intercommunal groupings (EPCI: metropolises, urban/agglomeration communities, communities of communes)	Councillors chosen at the same time as municipal councillors (or from them in small communes)	Waste, water, public transport, economic development, often planning. Membership is compulsory for almost every commune.
Communes (about 34,900)	Municipal council elected for six years (last March 2026); the council elects the mayor (maire)	Primary school buildings, local planning permits, civil status (births, marriages), local roads, municipal police in larger towns.

Three questions about local power in France

Are local leaders elected?

Municipal, departmental and regional councils are elected; mayors and council presidents are elected by their councils. Prefects are appointed civil servants. Since March 2026 all communes, including those under 1,000 inhabitants, elect councils from gender-balanced lists.

Which laws set up local government?

Article 72 of the Constitution sets out communes, departments and regions and the principle of free administration; the General Code of Local Authorities (CGCT) sets the details. Neighbourhood councils are statutory in large communes. New Caledonian customary bodies are in the 1998 Nouméa Accord and the 1999 organic law.

Who are local leaders accountable to?

Voters at elections. The prefect checks legality after the fact and can take decisions to the administrative court. Regional audit chambers (chambres régionales des comptes) check accounts. A mayor can be suspended or removed by government decree in serious cases, and the mayor also acts as an agent of the state for civil status and elections.

Traditional and customary authority

In mainland France there is no customary authority, and the principle of laïcité (secularism) keeps religion out of local government. An exception is Alsace-Moselle, where a 1801 Concordat still applies and the state pays priests, pastors and rabbis. Overseas, customary authority is formal: in New Caledonia the Customary Senate and eight customary areas, with Kanak chiefs and clan councils, advise on and handle customary civil status and land; in Wallis and Futuna three customary kings are recognised by the 1961 statute and sit in the territory's council; in French Guiana a Grand Customary Council of Amerindian and Bushinengue (Maroon) peoples, created by law in 2017, must be consulted on matters affecting them.

Community and neighbourhood power

Communes with 80,000 or more inhabitants must create neighbourhood councils (conseils de quartier), whose make-up the council decides. Communes that merged into a 'commune nouvelle' can keep 'communes déléguées' with a deputy mayor for each former village. Many towns also have participatory budgets, youth councils and residents' associations (associations de quartier), which are voluntary and registered under the 1901 associations law.

Points to know

About half of French communes have fewer than 500 inhabitants, which is why intercommunal groupings do much of the real work.
The mayor wears two hats: an elected local leader and, for things like registering births and organising elections, an agent of the state.
Paris, Lyon and Marseille have elected district (arrondissement) councils and mayors below the city council; Lyon's metropolis is a special authority that replaced the department in its area.
Corsica and the overseas territories have special statuses, with New Caledonia's the most autonomous.
Senators are elected mostly by local councillors, so local government has a strong voice in the national Parliament.

Local terms

Préfet (prefect): A senior civil servant appointed by the government to represent the state in a department or region.
Commune: The smallest unit of local government, from tiny villages to Paris, each with a council and a mayor.
Intercommunalité (EPCI): A grouping of communes that pools services like waste and transport.
Aire coutumière: One of eight customary areas in New Caledonia, each with a council of Kanak customary authorities.

Sources

Constitution of France (1958, rev. 2008), Constitute Project, checked 14 October 2026
Collectivités locales (official portal of the General Directorate for Local Authorities), French Ministry of the Interior – DGCL, checked 14 October 2026
Municipales 2026 : le mode de scrutin change pour les communes de moins de 1 000 habitants, French Ministry of the Interior, checked 14 October 2026
France: country profile (territorial organisation, responsibilities, finance), OECD–UCLG World Observatory on Subnational Government Finance and Investment (SNG-WOFI), checked 14 October 2026
France: monitoring of the European Charter of Local Self-Government (Recommendation 507 (2024)), Council of Europe Congress of Local and Regional Authorities (CARTA-MONITOR), checked 14 October 2026