“I will not run for a third term as mayor of Paris”

The subject which has been buzzing for several weeks around the candidacy of the mayor of Paris for the 2026 municipal elections has now been resolved: elected in 2014, re-elected in 2020, Anne Hidalgo announced in an interview with Monde that she does not wish to seek a third term. She assures that she will remain mayor “until the last day” and that she will continue to play politics after 2026. She hopes that Rémi Féraud, president of the Paris en commun group (which brings together socialists and various leftists) on the Paris Council and one of her oldest followers, will succeeds by bringing a gathering of the entire left, with the exception of La France insoumise. On the national level, if she is very critical of the finance bill currently under debate in Parliament, the elected socialist thinks that negotiation with the government of Michel Barnier remains preferable to voting on a motion of censure.

Will you be a candidate for the 2026 municipal elections?

I will not run for a third term. It's a decision I made a long time ago. I have always believed that two mandates were enough to bring about profound changes. Out of respect for the Parisians, I wanted to announce it early enough and at a time that would allow us to prepare a calm transmission to support a team, in this case led by Rémi Féraud. I know him well, I have appreciated him for a very long time; he is the one who will be able to carry our history and reinvent a future for Paris. He has the necessary solidity, seriousness and ability to come together. As mayor of 10^e and as president of the majority group since 2014, we have fought so many battles together. Rémi has always been able to maintain a respectful but firm relationship with the left-wing partners who are part of our team and, as a senator since 2017, he also has a national dimension.

How far should the gathering of the left go and what do you think of the other candidacies on the left, in particular that of Emmanuel Grégoire, your former first deputy?

Emmanuel Grégoire has chosen to join the National Assembly to take up the fight against the far right: there will likely be a dissolution by the end of 2025. You cannot be a candidate for everything. Rémi is a candidate for a left-wing rally and aims to become the next mayor of Paris. But it's not me who decides, I don't impose anything, I simply give an indication. It will be up to Parisian socialist activists to decide. I hope and wish that environmentalists and communists will rally behind his candidacy in the first round of municipal elections. As for La France insoumise, we are not at all in the same register of values ​​and their recent proposal to repeal the law on the apology of terrorism shows this well.

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