The Paris–Lyon–Marseille Laws, commonly abbreviated to the PLM Laws (), are a set of French laws that define how the municipal councils and mayors of the country’s three largest cities—Paris, Lyon and Marseille—are elected. The first of these PLM laws dates from 1982, and the second from 2025.
Overview
The legislation was championed by Interior Minister Gaston Defferre and was adopted in the context of the Defferre laws, or decentralisation laws, passed in March of that year. Under the Defferre laws, the arrondissements of each city had their local town halls () — which were previously local annexes of the central city hall run by city appointees — converted into arrondissement councils (conseils d'arrondissement) in Paris and Lyon and elected sector councils in Marseille (where sectors group multiple arrondissements). While being locally elected and similar in operation to a municipal council (), they have very few powers and are not full-service municipalities. They cannot raise taxes and instead administer budgets delegated by the central city hall.Law No. 82-213 of 2 March 1982, relating to the rights and freedoms of communes, departments and regions, later codified in the General Code of Territorial Collectivities.
The first of the PLM laws, Law No. 82-1170 of 31 December 1982, amended provisions of the French Electoral Code relating to the election of members of the Council of Paris and the municipal councils of Lyon and Marseille, establishing a special electoral status for the three most populous communes in France.Loi n°82-1170 du 31 décembre 1982 portant modification de certaines dispositions du code électoral relatives à l'élection des membres du conseil de Paris et des conseils municipaux de Lyon et de Marseille, Légifrance. Under the 1982 PLM electoral system, municipal elections in Paris, Lyon and Marseille were organised at the arrondissement (Paris and Lyon) or sector level (Marseille). Voters elected an arrondissement/sector council using the two-round proportional list system used in French communes of 1,000+ inhabitants. Approximately one third of those elected also sat on the citywide municipal council (or on the Council of Paris), and it is that citywide council that then elected the city’s mayor (as in other French communes). The arrondissement/sector council then elected its own mayor (the arrondissement/sector mayor) after the city mayoral election.
In 2025, the second PLM law, Law No. 2025-795 of 11 August 2025, was passed. It substantially modifies the municipal electoral system in Paris, Lyon and Marseille and applies for the first time at the municipal elections scheduled for March 2026. The reform replaces the earlier “single, arrondissement/sector-based” election with two simultaneous ballots: one citywide ballot to elect councillors of Paris / the municipal councillors of Lyon and Marseille, and a second ballot to elect arrondissement/sector councillors. Both ballots use a two-round proportional list system, but the majority bonus is reduced to 25% for the citywide municipal ballot (while remaining 50% for the arrondissement/sector ballot). As elsewhere in France, the mayor of the city continues to be elected indirectly by the citywide council at its first sitting following the election.
1982 PLM law
Election of municipal councils and arrondissement/sector councils
Members of the Council of Paris and the municipal councils of Marseille and Lyon are elected using a specific electoral system: each of these communes is divided into sectors (in Lyon each arrondissement constitutes a sector; in Marseille two arrondissements form a sector; in Paris, arrondissements 1, 2, 3 and 4 are grouped into one sector, and each of the other arrondissements constitutes its own sector). In each sector, an election is held according to the rules applicable to communes with more than 1,000 inhabitants—every six years, by direct universal suffrage, using party-list proportional representation with a majority bonus.Loi n°87-509 du 9 juillet 1987 modifiant l'organisation administrative et le régime électoral de la ville de Marseille.
Within each sector, one third of elected members sit both on the municipal council and on the arrondissement/sector council; the others sit only on the arrondissement/sector council: Paris: 517 elected members across 17 sectors, including 163 members of the Council of Paris and 354 members serving only as arrondissement/sector councillors.Source: of the General Code of Territorial Collectivities (CGCT).The number of arrondissement councillors in each of the three cities is set by Decree No. 83-159 of 3 March 1983, as amended for Marseille by the law of 9 July 1987. Marseille: 275 elected members across 8 sectors (each comprising 2 arrondissements), including 101 municipal councillors and 174 sector-only councillors.Source: of the CGCT. Lyon: 221 elected members across 9 arrondissements, including 73 municipal councillors and 148 arrondissement-only councillors.
Arrondissement/sector councils
The PLM law creates an elected arrondissement or sector council (), chaired by an elected arrondissement or sector mayor (), for each municipal arrondissement (or sector) in the three cities. The arrondissement/sector council includes the municipal councillors elected in the arrondissement (or sector), as well as additional councillors in a number that varies by arrondissement (or sector), taken from the candidate lists immediately following those elected to the municipal council. The number of arrondissement/sector councillors is double the number of municipal councillors, but may not be fewer than ten or more than forty.Source: of the CGCT.
Arrondissement/sector mayor
The arrondissement/sector council is chaired by the arrondissement/sector mayor, elected from among the municipal councillors of the relevant arrondissement or sector. This election takes place eight days after the election of the mayor of the commune.Source: of the CGCT.
The mayor prepares and implements the deliberations of the arrondissement/sector council.Source: of the CGCT. The mayor authorises expenditure and receipts within the arrondissement/sector budget framework. Deputy mayors of arrondissement/sectors are elected under the same conditions as the arrondissement/sector mayor and may receive delegated responsibilities.
The arrondissement/sector mayor and their deputies serve as civil registry officers and are responsible within the arrondissement/sector for the functions that fall to the commune’s mayor in matters of civil registration, school affairs linked to the enforcement of compulsory education, and responsibilities under the National Service Code.Source: of the CGCT.
The arrondissement/sector mayor chairs the arrondissement school fund ()Source: of the CGCT. and gives opinions on planning authorisations (building permits, etc.) and road occupation permissions issued by the mayor of the commune in the commune’s name.Source: of the CGCT. The mayor is also consulted on proposed acquisitions or sales of buildings planned by the commune within the arrondissement or sector, as well as on declarations submitted by owners under the right of first refusal ().
Powers of arrondissement/sector councils
As noted above, the arrondissement/sector council elects the arrondissement/sector mayor from among the members of the municipal council, using the same procedures as the election of commune mayors.
The arrondissement/sector council: allocates operating funds delegated to it by the municipal council within a budget document called the special arrondissement statement (), which is annexed to the commune’s budget;Source: of the CGCT. it also votes on investment appropriations;Source: of the CGCT. deliberates on the location and development programme of all social facilities intended for arrondissement/sector residents, where implementation is subject to a municipal council decision and where management (except in specific cases) falls to the arrondissement/sector council; appoints from among its members the commune’s representatives in arrondissement/sector bodies where the commune must be represented; is asked for opinions on reports and projects concerning matters whose execution is planned in whole or in part within the arrondissement/sector boundaries; is consulted by the commune mayor before any municipal council deliberation on the Local urban plan (Plan General de Ordenación Urbana) and on all planning projects when the plan or project concerns the arrondissement;Source: of the CGCT. is consulted by the municipal council on the amount of subsidies the council proposes to grant to associations active in the arrondissement or sector;Source: of the CGCT. may be delegated management of a municipal service facility by the municipal council.
The arrondissement/sector council may submit written questions to the commune mayor or request a debate in the municipal council on any matter affecting the arrondissement or sector.Source: of the CGCT.
Meetings of arrondissement/sector councils are public.Article L. 2511-10 of the CGCT referring to ; Malberg decision of the Conseil d'État, 2 October 1992.
Staff of arrondissement/sector city halls To exercise these powers, the arrondissement/sector mayor has commune employees assigned to them. Authority over evaluation, promotion, or disciplinary action is exercised by the commune mayor after consultation with the arrondissement/sector mayor.
Special regime for Paris
The PLM law provides that the two local authorities established on the territory of Paris (the commune and the department) are henceforth administered by common bodies: the Mayor of Paris and the Council of Paris.Source: of the CGCT.
The powers of the Mayor of Paris remain limited by the specific powers of the Prefecture of Police, stemming in particular from the decree of the consuls of 12 Messidor Year VIII (1 July 1800), which set out the functions of the Prefect of Police in Paris, and by subsequent amending texts.
Historical references concerning the 1982 PLM law
Effect of electing the mayor by indirect universal suffrage At the promulgation of the PLM law carried by Interior Minister Gaston Defferre, the sectors in Paris and Lyon followed arrondissement boundaries, while in Marseille the sectors were defined by a special division, each grouping between one and four arrondissements. Two months later, during the March 1983 municipal election in Marseille, Gaston Defferre was re-elected mayor of Marseille with fewer votes than Jean-Claude Gaudin, while nonetheless winning a majority of sectors.Marseille’s sectors were redrawn after Gaston Defferre’s death.
In 2001, Gérard Collomb and Bertrand Delanoë became mayors of Lyon and Paris for the first time in similar circumstances, as did Anne Hidalgo in Paris in 2020, and—according to some—also in 2014.“Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet dit qu'elle est majoritaire en voix à Paris. Et si elle avait raison?”, Slate, 11 April 2014.Where Collomb’s and Delanoë’s lists faced divided right-wing lists in some arrondissements, adding together right-wing list scores does not change the final result; the two-tier voting system enabled their victories, not merely vote-splitting in three-way races. Likewise for Anne Hidalgo’s 2014 election.