With France’s next municipal elections less than eight months away, journalists at StreetPress have launched a nationwide campaign aimed at tracking and countering the rise of Marine Le Pen’s National Rally (RN).
The outlet says it has analysed all 36,000 French municipalities, producing a colour-coded map ranking each one from “low risk” to “high risk” of electing an RN candidate.
The interactive map, shaded from green to red, allows users to click through local results and projections for March 2026.
StreetPress calls the tool a “playbook for action”.
Visitors are asked for their email address to access the map, regional news digests and “mobilisation” opportunities through local associations, ranging from climate and education groups to refugee aid networks.
Founded in 2009, StreetPress describes itself as an “independent media outlet for a new generation”.
Based in Paris, the site focuses on investigations, identity politics and social issues.
On its website, StreetPress declares: “The journalist who claims to be ‘neutral’ betrays both journalism and the reader. By refusing to assume the editorial choices they inevitably make, the media lose our generation’s trust.”
It is part of Sphera, a European network that links left-leaning independent media and cultural organisations across the continent. Funded in part by European Union cultural programmes, Sphera promotes collaboration between progressive outlets through shared reporting, podcasts and cross-border investigations.
Several organisations back the StreetPress initiative, including Greenpeace and the National Union of Independent Radio Stations (SNRL), which represents about 600 non-profit local broadcasters.
According to the SNRL, the mapping should help “journalists, activists and citizens better focus their energy” in key towns.
It insists, though, that “the fight against the far right must be waged everywhere and at all times”.
Behind StreetPress’ project sits a broader network of 17 media, activist organisations, NGOs and advocacy groups, all committed to what they describe as “mobilising civil society” against the populist French right-wing RN party.
With about 100 of France’s 500 largest towns considered potential RN gains, the outlet and its allies appear determined to turn concern into co-ordinated action.
The initiative does not stop at data visualisation.
StreetPress is also launching a series of free training sessions for activists, reporters and social media influencers, all focused on “understanding and countering the far-right”.
For citizens: Online courses led by experts explaining RN’s positions on issues like education, security, and immigration — with guidance on spotting “far-right disinformation”.
For journalists: Hands-on workshops in open-source investigation and campaign coverage, taught by StreetPress staff and “specialists in extremist movements”.
For content creators and social media influencers, it offers “training to help them produce online content warning their followers about far-right influence”.
The group says funding for €300,000 project comes partly from StreetPress itself, alongside “supporting foundations”, which are undisclosed, and other donations.
According to its website, the Street Press training station has already started operations.
The project has already sparked backlash.
During a session of the National Assembly’s Culture Committee, Anne Sicard, an MP from the right-wing nationalist movement Identité-Libertés, pressed Arcom president Martin Ajdari over what she described as “a publicly supported far-left campaign disguised as journalism”. Arcom is the French regulatory authority for audiovisual and digital communication.
Following Sicard’s remarks, the Confédération Nationale des Radios Associatives (CNRA) announced it was cutting ties with StreetPress, citing the need to “respect the neutrality of our organisation”.
The federation stressed that its local member stations would remain “spaces for pluralist and independent debate”.
“Just imagine,” Sicard told the committee on October 8, “Dozens of community stations subsidised by taxpayers, through the €35 million state fund for radio expression, giving media cover to a far-left political campaign.”
