Issued on: 28/06/2020
Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo reacts to victory in the second round of the mayoral elections, in Paris, France, June 28, 2020. © Christian Hartmann, REUTERS
Text by:FRANCE 24
Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo declared victory in her fight to win re-election in the French capital on Sunday, which will allow her to oversee the 2024 Summer Olympics.
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Hidalgo, a Socialist Party member, beat conservative candidate Rachida Dati in France’s municipal elections, according to estimations based on partial results. She was first elected as Paris mayor in 2014.
She is backed by the Europe Ecology – The Greens party (EELV), which gained strong influence nationwide in Sunday’s voting.
Votre confiance sera notre force. Merci Paris ! pic.twitter.com/5g5o9VXZhi— Anne Hidalgo (@Anne_Hidalgo) June 28, 2020
The second round of the municipal elections, which had been postponed amid the coronavirus crisis, has seen a record low turnout amid concerns over the pandemic.
Only 40 percent of voters cast ballots as French voters were required to wear masks, maintain social distancing while in queues and carry their own pens to sign voting registers.
Interior Minister Christophe Castaner, in charge of organising the elections, said that “today, everywhere across France, health measures ... were able to be respected. That is a satisfaction.” Yet he “regretted” the low turnout.
Macron's government under the spotlight
Voting was suspended after the first round of the nationwide municipal elections on March 15, which produced decisive outcomes in 30,000 mostly small communes. French President Emmanuel Macron's critics say he shouldn't have allowed the first round to go ahead at all, since it was held just as infections were exploding across Europe and just two days before France introduced sweeping nationwide lockdown measures.
The spread of the coronavirus has slowed significantly in France in recent weeks and almost all restrictions on social and business activity have been gradually lifted over the last month. France has reported nearly 200,000 confirmed cases and 29,781 deaths in the pandemic but experts believe all reported figures are undercounts due to limited testing and missed mild cases.
The elections, though ostensibly focused on local concerns, are also seen as a key political indicator ahead of the 2022 French presidential election.
Macron had said he wasn't considering the elections as a pro- or anti-government vote.
Yet a government reshuffle is expected in the coming weeks, as Macron seeks a new political boost amid the economic difficulties prompted by the virus crisis.
(FRANCE 24 with AP)
Anne Hidalgo: anti-car Socialist mayor of Paris
Issued on: 28/06/2020
A victorious Anne Hidalgo after being elected to another term as Paris mayor
JOEL SAGET AFP
Paris (AFP)
Anne Hidalgo, re-elected Paris mayor on Sunday, is a Spanish-born socialist who has waged a divisive but ambitious campaign to push cars out of the centre of the French capital.
Hidalgo, 61, became in 2014 the first-ever woman to head the French capital's city hall that had once been the political springboard for late president Jacques Chirac.
She doggedly rose through the ranks despite having been told as a girl that her Spanish roots would forever hold her back.
Retaining the Paris mayor position is a boost for the left in France after its dismal showing in the 2017 presidential election.
As mayor, Hidalgo has pushed to reduce car use in the capital and boost biking.
She has reduced lanes and speed limits, closing off dozens of streets to cars completely.
In her latest campaign, she has proposed transforming 60,000 roadside parking spaces into cycling lanes.
But the move has proved controversial among many drivers who complain the city is a perpetual building site.
Claiming victory on Sunday, Hidalgo thanked Parisians for choosing "a Paris that breathes, a Paris that is more agreeable to live in, a more caring city that leaves no one by the wayside."
Hidalgo has also pledged to improve sanitation in the city plagued by rats, bed bugs and dirty streets.
Her unsuccessful challenger Agnes Buzyn of President Emmanuel Macron's Republic on the Move (LREM) party described Paris during her campaign as "brutal for its inhabitants, a city whose condition has deteriorated".
Hidalgo has said sanitation will require a yearly one-billion euro ($1.12 billion) city budget.
Another challenge is the sky-high property costs driving some 12,000 people out of Europe's densest city each year.
Hidalgo has promised major investment in housing, transport and green spaces, seeking to reverse the middle- and working-class exodus to the suburbs.
- 'Take the challenge' -
Hidalgo was born in San Fernando, a town in Andalusia, Spain, to an electrician father and a mother who worked as a seamstress.
Two years later the family moved to Lyon in southeast France -- Ana became Anne and French citizenship came when she was 14.
"One day in second grade, my teacher told me: 'little Spanish girls don't make it to the top of the class.' That only made me want to take up the challenge," Hidalgo told the Parisien newspaper in March.
After graduating from university, Hidalgo had a career as a labour inspector before becoming an advisor to former Labour minister Martine Aubry, the architect of France's 35-hour working week.
Hidalgo became the deputy mayor of Paris in 2001, a post she held for 13 years until claiming the top job in one of the world's most visited cities -- winning with a convincing 55 percent of second round votes.
Having had to endure taunts from her political opponents about her modest origins and lack of Parisian roots, Hidalgo has been known to quote the words of writer Sacha Guitry: "Being a Parisian is not about being born in Paris, it is about being reborn there."
- Olympics on horizon -
When she finally emerged from the shadow of her fellow Socialist predecessor Bertrand Delanoe in 2014, her tenure as Paris mayor began with a baptism of fire.
In January 2015 jihadist gunmen shot dead cartoonists and journalists at the Paris offices of satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo.
Just 10 months later, 130 people were killed in Paris when gunmen and suicide bombers from the Islamic State jihadist group attacked bars, restaurants, a concert hall and the Stade de France national stadium.
Then last year another blow when fire partially destroyed the Notre-Dame cathedral, a beloved monument intrinsic to the very fabric of Paris.
But there have been victories too: in 2017 Paris was crowned the host of the 2024 Summer Olympics, which Hidalgo should now preside over.
burs-mlr/sjw/pvh
Paris (AFP)
Anne Hidalgo, re-elected Paris mayor on Sunday, is a Spanish-born socialist who has waged a divisive but ambitious campaign to push cars out of the centre of the French capital.
Hidalgo, 61, became in 2014 the first-ever woman to head the French capital's city hall that had once been the political springboard for late president Jacques Chirac.
She doggedly rose through the ranks despite having been told as a girl that her Spanish roots would forever hold her back.
Retaining the Paris mayor position is a boost for the left in France after its dismal showing in the 2017 presidential election.
As mayor, Hidalgo has pushed to reduce car use in the capital and boost biking.
She has reduced lanes and speed limits, closing off dozens of streets to cars completely.
In her latest campaign, she has proposed transforming 60,000 roadside parking spaces into cycling lanes.
But the move has proved controversial among many drivers who complain the city is a perpetual building site.
Claiming victory on Sunday, Hidalgo thanked Parisians for choosing "a Paris that breathes, a Paris that is more agreeable to live in, a more caring city that leaves no one by the wayside."
Hidalgo has also pledged to improve sanitation in the city plagued by rats, bed bugs and dirty streets.
Her unsuccessful challenger Agnes Buzyn of President Emmanuel Macron's Republic on the Move (LREM) party described Paris during her campaign as "brutal for its inhabitants, a city whose condition has deteriorated".
Hidalgo has said sanitation will require a yearly one-billion euro ($1.12 billion) city budget.
Another challenge is the sky-high property costs driving some 12,000 people out of Europe's densest city each year.
Hidalgo has promised major investment in housing, transport and green spaces, seeking to reverse the middle- and working-class exodus to the suburbs.
- 'Take the challenge' -
Hidalgo was born in San Fernando, a town in Andalusia, Spain, to an electrician father and a mother who worked as a seamstress.
Two years later the family moved to Lyon in southeast France -- Ana became Anne and French citizenship came when she was 14.
"One day in second grade, my teacher told me: 'little Spanish girls don't make it to the top of the class.' That only made me want to take up the challenge," Hidalgo told the Parisien newspaper in March.
After graduating from university, Hidalgo had a career as a labour inspector before becoming an advisor to former Labour minister Martine Aubry, the architect of France's 35-hour working week.
Hidalgo became the deputy mayor of Paris in 2001, a post she held for 13 years until claiming the top job in one of the world's most visited cities -- winning with a convincing 55 percent of second round votes.
Having had to endure taunts from her political opponents about her modest origins and lack of Parisian roots, Hidalgo has been known to quote the words of writer Sacha Guitry: "Being a Parisian is not about being born in Paris, it is about being reborn there."
- Olympics on horizon -
When she finally emerged from the shadow of her fellow Socialist predecessor Bertrand Delanoe in 2014, her tenure as Paris mayor began with a baptism of fire.
In January 2015 jihadist gunmen shot dead cartoonists and journalists at the Paris offices of satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo.
Just 10 months later, 130 people were killed in Paris when gunmen and suicide bombers from the Islamic State jihadist group attacked bars, restaurants, a concert hall and the Stade de France national stadium.
Then last year another blow when fire partially destroyed the Notre-Dame cathedral, a beloved monument intrinsic to the very fabric of Paris.
But there have been victories too: in 2017 Paris was crowned the host of the 2024 Summer Olympics, which Hidalgo should now preside over.
burs-mlr/sjw/pvh
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