The mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, member of the Socialist Party, announced that she will not seek a third term in 2026. Elected in 2014, then re-elected in 2020, Anne Hidalgo succeeded Bertrand Delanoë and would like her faithful ally, Rémi Féraud, president of the Paris en commun group (socialists and various leftists) on the Paris Council, succeeds him. Anne Hidalgo assures that she will remain mayor “until the last day” and that she will continue to be in politics after 2026.
“Two mandates were enough”
“I will not run for a third term,” she declared in an interview with Monde . “It’s a decision I made a long time ago. I have always believed that two mandates were enough to bring about profound changes.”adds the 65-year-old outgoing mayor, whose second term was marked by the popular success of the Olympic Games in the heart of the capital.
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 axes in France, raised an outcry among right-wing elected officials and the government, recalls theAFP.
“Prepare for a peaceful transmission”
Anne Hidalgo indicates that she wanted to announce her decision “early enough” pour “prepare a calm transmission to support a team, in this case led by Rémi Féraud”an ally with whom she “worn so many battles”.
“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”she adds about the mayor of the 10th arrondissement of Paris.
The mayor of Paris hopes that it will bring a rally of the left outside of rebellious France. “I hope and wish that environmentalists and communists will rally behind his candidacy from 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 clearly”she said.
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.
“I will continue to invest myself”
Anne Hidalgo has indicated that she will not abandon the political arena. “I will continue to play politics, helping the emergence of a democratic and ecological social force, with the PS”. The socialist mayor wants Raphaël Glucksmann to take over “leadership of this force”.
“I will continue to be involved in climate justice issues, nationally and internationally. In what place, I will see, in a place where I will be very free”she added.
At the end of October, the weekly The Chained Duck had claimed that she was in contact with the former mayor of New York Michael Bloomberg with a view to taking the head of his foundation in Brussels, reports theAFP.
