Anne Hidalgo will not be back. Elected in 2014 and 2020 as mayor of Paris, the elected socialist declared this Tuesday, in The Worldnot to enter the race for a third term in 2026.
She hastened to designate her heir: Rémi Féraud. A name that only speaks to those who follow Parisian politics. Who is the PS senator pushed to the forefront by the mayor of Paris?
From elected official to district mayor
At 53, the native of Versailles (Yvelines) has an entire career in politics. In 1989 he joined the Paris business school, then studied at Sciences Po, before failing the ENA, as recalled The Point in 2011.
He then began to campaign in the PS, and in 2001 joined the cabinet of Alain Richard, Minister of Defense in the cohabitation government of Lionel Jospin under the presidency of Jacques Chirac. Rémi Féraud will then become parliamentary attaché to Parisian MP Danièle Hoffman-Rispal. Before playing his own card.
He succeeded Tony Dreyfus as head of the 10th arrondissement of Paris in 2008, after having been first deputy there. At 37, Rémi Féraud realizes a “dream” and ticks off a goal. “I was completely focused on this ambition,” he mentioned in The Point.
After nearly ten years in office in the district where he has resided since 1998, Rémi Féraud left the head of town hall in the 10th arrondissement to take on national responsibilities. Elected to the Senate in 2017, he now sits in the socialist, environmentalist and republican group.
“He has solidity, seriousness and the ability to bring people together”
At the same time, the man who held the position of first federal secretary of the PS in Paris from 2008 to 2015 then from 2018 to 2021, has chaired the municipal majority group for ten years.
« [Rémi]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,” says Anne Hidalgo in the columns of Monde.
“He is very solid, with analytical skills. He is not embarking on a personal approach but he has great parliamentary and local life experience,” commented one of his supporters on November 11 to the Parisian.
A perilous mission: bringing together the left
Among his political feats, he was the first elected official to welcome on his territory in the 10th arrondissement the “shooting rooms” desired by the socialist government of Jean-Marc Ayrault. As a senator, Rémi Féraud is also at the origin of the bill establishing a count of homeless people in each municipality and an annual night count in large cities. She was adopted last January.
“We must not change the story, we must extend it, open a new chapter of the book,” said Rémi Féraud during an interview with AFP, he who wants to place himself in “a logic of transmission, so that the history of the left in Paris that began in 2001 can continue. »
For Anne Hidalgo's “chosen one”, the work ahead of 2026 promises to be immense. Féraud will have to convince, make himself known and above all unite on the left. One last task is not easy, while Emmanuel Grégoire, former first deputy of Anne Hidalgo today at odds with the councilor, declared himself a candidate for City Hall. And has already received the support of 450 activists from the Parisian socialist federation.
Our file on Paris town hall
Rémi Féraud said last week that he wanted to “organize the rally straight away, with the district mayors, elected officials and activists”.
