Municipal 2026: Who is Rémi Féraud, the successor designated by Anne Hidalgo?

Anne Hidalgo would have made her choice. According to information from ParisianRémi Féraud would have received the support of the mayor of Paris to be the socialist candidate for the municipal elections of 2026. If Anne Hidalgo still keeps the secret about a possible third candidacy on his part, the clues about his future departure are multiplying. According to the Chained duckshe would have decided to join Brussels for a position in an environmentalist foundation of Michael Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York.

If for a large part of his second term, Emmanuel Grégoire, his first deputy, seemed to be in pole position, this hypothesis now seems distant. His election as deputy for Paris, under the New Popular Front (NFP) label last July, seems to have marked the divorce.

The name of Lamia El Aaraje, promoted to deputy for town planning after the departure of Emmanuel Grégoire, is also circulating. However, the first secretary of the Socialist Party of Paris, a fervent opponent of the NFP, would be judged too “divisive” within his own troops. Pierre Rabadan, Deputy for Sport, and Éric Lejoindre, Mayor of the 18th^e borough, would also be in the mayor’s favor. But Anne Hidalgo visibly prefers the socialist senator, Rémi Féraud.

“If I am not a candidate, I will support your candidacy, Rémi”, would have said the mayor of Paris during a lunch at the Hôtel de Ville last October, in the presence of the 4 names mentioned previously, according to the Tribune Sunday. A handover to the 53-year-old socialist, still very little known to the general public.

He is elected mayor of^e arrondissement in 2008, on Bertrand Delanoë’s list. In 2014, he co-led the campaign team during Anne Hidalgo’s first election. After the vote, he was designated president of the majority socialist group in the Council of Paris, a role he still occupies today.

In 2017, he resigned from his position as mayor of X^e arrondissement during his election as senator of Paris. He is re-elected in 2023. His mandate at the Palais du Luxembourg does not prevent him from being present at the Paris Council and he does not hesitate to scrap with Rachida Dati.

But this apparent transfer of power is far from putting an end to the war of succession around Anne Hidalgo. First of all because the PS mayor has not yet officially closed the door to the possibility of a third candidacy. Then, there are still many contenders for the mayor’s seat. If he will probably not be dubbed by the outgoing mayor, Emmanuel Grégoire does not rule out the idea of ​​running.

Also, among its environmentalist allies, the temptation to lead the left-wing coalition is strong. Among the Macronists, Pierre-Yves Bournazel is already a candidate, supported by Edouard Philippe. Finally, in opposition, Rachida Dati does not hide her desire to recover the seat of her Parisian rival. According to an Ifop survey from March 2024, it is she who would be in the lead, regardless of the names of her potential opponents.

There remains a major unknown for the 2026 municipal elections: the voting method. Renaissance and LR deputies from Paris have tabled a bill aimed in particular at reforming the Parisian municipal election. “They won’t have time to adopt it in time before the election”believes one of the members of the Parisian executive. A reform which, if it passes, could reshuffle the cards for the future candidate of the Parisian left.