Benoît Payan
France
Socialist
mayor of Marseille
government
Benoît Daniel Payan is a French politician who has served as Mayor of Marseille since 2020. He was a member of the Socialist Party (PS) until 2020, since which he has stood for the miscellaneous left.
Standing...
Stories...
Oct 6, 2026
Lean Left
The Marseille mayor and five of his deputies are on trial in a defamation case brought by Nicolas Pagnol, grandson of the writer Marcel Pagnol.
Payan is a Socialist mayor, so the trial puts a spotlight on one of the PS's most prominent local figures and his combative style in a moment when the party needs to look serious and credible ahead of 2027.
Aug 13, 2026
Lean Right
The Marseille mayor has written to Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu, as Le Figaro reports a never-before-seen explosion of crack consumption in the city.
LR credits him for finally ringing the alarm on urban security, but criticizes his left-wing municipal record for tolerating a public order collapse for years.