France: Anne Hidalgo will not run for mayor of Paris in 2026

The mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo, whose city hosted the Olympic and Paralympic Games this summer, will not be a candidate in 2026 for a third term, she announces in an interview with the daily newspaper “Le Monde” published Tuesday.

“I will not run for a third term. It’s a decision that I took a long time ago,” declared the socialist councilor, in charge of the capital since 2014, putting an end to a suspense of several months over his candidacy.

“I have always subscribed to the idea that two mandates were sufficient to carry out profound changes,” adds the outgoing mayor, 65, whose second mandate was marked by the popular success of the Olympic Games in the heart of the city.

First female mayor of Paris

Anne Hidalgo was nevertheless weakened by the historic failure of her candidacy for the 2022 presidential election (1.7% of the vote), and her recent decision to limit the maximum speed to 50 km/h on the Paris ring road, one of the the busiest roads in France, caused an outcry among right-wing elected officials and the government.

Less than a year and a half before the municipal elections, Anne Hidalgo assures that she will be “mayor until the last day, with the same energy” as when she arrived at City Hall where she succeeded the socialist Bertrand Delanoë , in March 2014, becoming the first woman to lead Paris.

No presidential ambition

She says she wanted to announce her decision “sufficiently early” out of “respect” for Parisians and to prepare “a calm transmission” carried by the socialist senator Rémi Féraud, one of her followers, whom she wishes to see succeed her. Her former first deputy Emmanuel Grégoire, who became a deputy and with whom she was at odds, declared himself a candidate last week, with the support of 450 socialist activists.

Asked about her future projects, Anne Hidalgo clarified to Le Monde that she is “not at all a candidate” for the next presidential election. At the end of October, the weekly “Le Canard aîné” affirmed that she was in contact with the former mayor of New York Michael Bloomberg with a view to taking the helm of his foundation in Brussels.

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