When France went to the polls for the first round of municipal elections on March 15, the coronavirus crisis was already well underway. Now, more than a hundred days and thirty thousand deaths later, the vital runoff contests are finally taking place in towns and cities opening up from the lockdown.

The first-round contests already gave some indication of the likely results; such was the case of the southeastern city of Grenoble, where the left-wing list led by incumbent Éric Piolle took almost 47 percent of the vote. Mayor since 2014, Piolle is a member of the French Greens (EE-LV; Europe Écologie les Verts) but also head of a coalition uniting La France Insoumise, the Communist Party, the anticapitalist group Ensemble! and other smaller left-wing and ecologist forces.

With his victory in Sunday’s runoff contest seeming likely, Éric Piolle sat down with the Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung’s Ethan Earle to discuss Grenoble city hall’s handling of COVID-19, the state of Emmanuel Macron’s presidency, and the possibility of uniting green and left-wing politics.