Paris: Anne Hidalgo, ns socialist mayor of parishas tried to replace the French capital with a crusade against cars, but now faces an even more difficult challenge of expanding her profile nationally to become France’s first female president.
Hidalgo, 62, was a virtual unknown seven years ago when she succeeded her former mentor and boss, Bertrand Delano, as mayor of Paris — a position seen as a stepping stone to the presidency.
The reserve former labor inspector, who critics dismissed as a “treatment”, struggled to emerge from his shadow.
But Hidalgo, who had grown up at the age of two in a housing estate near Lyon in a family of Spanish immigrants who fled dictator Francisco Franco’s rule, was underestimated.
In response to elections that show him winning only between seven and nine percent of the vote for president, he pointed out paris match Last Month Magazine: “I’ve proven polls wrong all my life.”
“As the daughter of a laborer and a tailor who did not attend an elite school, I had no chance of becoming mayor of Paris,” she said.
Since winning the office of mayor in 2014, he has had to run the city through a series of crises, from a series of terrorist attacks to the 2018 and 2019 “Yellow Vest” uprisings and fires that nearly destroyed Notre-Dame Cathedral .
In an interview with The Guardian newspaper in March 2020, she described her experience as “almost like operating a catamaran in Permanent Force 7-9 air”.
Yet his first stint as Paris supremo – Hidalgo easily won re-election in 2020 – is perhaps best known for fighting and chaotic rollout over his decision to walk on a busy street running along the right bank of the Seine will be remembered. bike sharing plan
Hidalgo makes no bones about its anti-car stance.
In 2016 he was said to be in “complete denial about the climate emergency”, which brought nearly 200 countries together in Paris a year earlier to tackle global warming.
But as soon as one controversy subsided, another flared up.
His critics accused him of failing to be tough on petty crimes, allowing swarms of rats to invade public parks, and generally allowing the world’s most visited city to become dirty and unsightly.
Residents used the #saccageparis (trashed Paris) hashtag to post pictures of scooters dumped on streets, dilapidated public benches and pavement, among other ills.
Hidalgo has blamed the disorder on a lack of civic sense and accused his critics of running a smear campaign.
Responding to accusations of authoritarianism in her 2018 book “Respirer” (Breathe), the mother-in-law commented: “What passes for authority in a man becomes authoritarianism in a woman.”
Among her achievements she points to a cycling revolution, which has brought about doubling Paris’s network of cycle lanes since 2015.
Despite his controversial legacy, Hidalgo has emerged as one of the few figures able to unite the fragmented left around an environmentalist platform.
“Her hard work and the way she manages France’s largest city has shown she can be one,” Socialist Party leader Olivier Faure said in June.
“And maybe it’s time for a woman too.”
Hidalgo has also argued for having a woman as president.
She’s not the only woman to keep an eye on the Elysee Palace – far-right leader Marine Le Pen and centre-right politician, Valerie Pecrese, have also thrown their hats into the ring.
Hidalgo says: “A woman can change (the French’s) relationship with the people in power,” says Hidalgo, pointing to record low levels of turnout in recent elections.
Hidalgo, 62, was a virtual unknown seven years ago when she succeeded her former mentor and boss, Bertrand Delano, as mayor of Paris — a position seen as a stepping stone to the presidency.
The reserve former labor inspector, who critics dismissed as a “treatment”, struggled to emerge from his shadow.
But Hidalgo, who had grown up at the age of two in a housing estate near Lyon in a family of Spanish immigrants who fled dictator Francisco Franco’s rule, was underestimated.
In response to elections that show him winning only between seven and nine percent of the vote for president, he pointed out paris match Last Month Magazine: “I’ve proven polls wrong all my life.”
“As the daughter of a laborer and a tailor who did not attend an elite school, I had no chance of becoming mayor of Paris,” she said.
Since winning the office of mayor in 2014, he has had to run the city through a series of crises, from a series of terrorist attacks to the 2018 and 2019 “Yellow Vest” uprisings and fires that nearly destroyed Notre-Dame Cathedral .
In an interview with The Guardian newspaper in March 2020, she described her experience as “almost like operating a catamaran in Permanent Force 7-9 air”.
Yet his first stint as Paris supremo – Hidalgo easily won re-election in 2020 – is perhaps best known for fighting and chaotic rollout over his decision to walk on a busy street running along the right bank of the Seine will be remembered. bike sharing plan
Hidalgo makes no bones about its anti-car stance.
In 2016 he was said to be in “complete denial about the climate emergency”, which brought nearly 200 countries together in Paris a year earlier to tackle global warming.
But as soon as one controversy subsided, another flared up.
His critics accused him of failing to be tough on petty crimes, allowing swarms of rats to invade public parks, and generally allowing the world’s most visited city to become dirty and unsightly.
Residents used the #saccageparis (trashed Paris) hashtag to post pictures of scooters dumped on streets, dilapidated public benches and pavement, among other ills.
Hidalgo has blamed the disorder on a lack of civic sense and accused his critics of running a smear campaign.
Responding to accusations of authoritarianism in her 2018 book “Respirer” (Breathe), the mother-in-law commented: “What passes for authority in a man becomes authoritarianism in a woman.”
Among her achievements she points to a cycling revolution, which has brought about doubling Paris’s network of cycle lanes since 2015.
Despite his controversial legacy, Hidalgo has emerged as one of the few figures able to unite the fragmented left around an environmentalist platform.
“Her hard work and the way she manages France’s largest city has shown she can be one,” Socialist Party leader Olivier Faure said in June.
“And maybe it’s time for a woman too.”
Hidalgo has also argued for having a woman as president.
She’s not the only woman to keep an eye on the Elysee Palace – far-right leader Marine Le Pen and centre-right politician, Valerie Pecrese, have also thrown their hats into the ring.
Hidalgo says: “A woman can change (the French’s) relationship with the people in power,” says Hidalgo, pointing to record low levels of turnout in recent elections.
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