The Mayor of Paris believes that the success of the Olympic Games has put an end to the “outrages” of her political opponents, led by Rachida Dati. She also says that “the time has not yet come” to think about running again.
For Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo, the success of the Olympic Games swept away the flood “of Trumpist attacks” from the Parisian right carried by his rival Rachida Dati against her policy of transforming the capital to make it less car-friendly. Having reached the end of her term of office, the Socialist mayor continues to maintain the suspense of a third bid in 2026. “The time has not yet come”.says Anne Hidalgo in an interview with AFP, denying that the “rumors of a move to Brussels to head a foundation.
“She doesn’t want to run again, that’s pretty clear to everyone”.However, a person close to Anne Hidalgo, 65, who took over the reins of City Hall in 2014, told AFP. In the meantime, the PS mayor seems to be exacting her revenge on Rachida Dati, the Minister of Culture vying for the Paris mayoralty, and the “‘Hidalgo bashing'” of which she has been the subject via the #SaccageParis movement on social networks, particularly after her historically low score in the 2022 presidential election.
“Rachida Dati’s Trumpist right”
This summer, the success of the Olympic Games has “confirmed for all to see that Paris is the most beautiful city in the world, that it was capable of transforming itself, of being more peaceful, of having less pollution while preserving its heritage”.she believes. A “success story crowning achievement “nine years of work and made “all the sterile polemics we’d been subjected to collapse like a house of cards”.. From “lies carried mainly by the Trumpist right of Rachida Dati”mayor of the VIIth arrondissement, whose opposition group “Changer Paris was recently demoted to second place on the Paris Council.
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“They screamed so much, went so far out of line, and were echoed so much by everyone, including the mainstream media, that people ended up believing that the Olympics would be hell.”. “During the Games, I was stopped every day in the street by people saying ‘But how could anyone tell us such things?’ And it goes on.”she recounts.
“It creates antibodies”confides the mayor. She is delighted that Emmanuel Macron, whom she met alone in October – the first time this has happened since 2017 – has been able to help her. “shares” his vision of the Olympic legacy. So much on the rings on the Eiffel Towerwhich it wants to maintain until 2028, and on the transformation of the Eiffel Tower/Iéna Bridge/Trocadéro axis, an emblematic site in the capital. “magnified by the Games.
Controversy over latest measures
After the partial pedestrianization of the Pont d’Iéna, the municipality is planning to transform the Place du Trocadéro, in front of the Palais de Chaillot, to reduce the number of cars on the site, as on the Place de la Bastille. A project opposed by the right-wing mayor of the XVIth arrondissement, and “which the ‘Dati right’, of course, will also oppose, as it has made cars its hobbyhorse”.sighs the PS mayor. “We suspect she has strong ties to the automotive world”.she says, while Rachida Dati is prosecuted for corruption in the Carlos Ghosn affairformer CEO of Renault-Nissan. “I hope that justice will do its job and that, as 2026 approaches, Parisians will know exactly who Madame Dati is working for.”the PS mayor.
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Her latest flagship measures, a 50 km/h speed limit on the ring road and the introduction of a “limited traffic zone” in the hypercentrehave given rise to controversy over the way in which he made his decisions. “For more than ten years, the right-wing, Rachida Dati, Valérie Pécresse (LR president of the Île-de-France region)… have been saying that I didn’t consult them, and consider that electric vehicles will solve everything. Except that since 2012, pollution in Paris has dropped by 40%, and this is totally correlated with the drop in traffic, which is also 40%.”points out the mayor. “What I criticize them for is their lack of intellectual honesty in changing the reality of scientific data, when the facts are there.”.
By 2030, it is “absolutely essential” to continue to reduce air pollution “which causes 2,500 deaths a year in Paris”.. She intends to pursue her “gentle revolution such as the pedestrianization of “school streets voted for by all Parisians, including most right-wing mayors.