Paris (AFP)

Long in the shadow of the charismatic Bertrand Delanoë, Anne Hidalgo, almost unknown six years ago, has succeeded, even if it means splitting up, to impose her mark of socialist converted to ecology in Paris, where she is relaunching herself in the battle for a second term.

Her detractors portray an authoritarian woman, bent on her anti-car policy, her supporters, on the contrary, praise her courage and her empathy.

"This woman is a mixture of discretion and warmth", assures AFP her bookseller, Philippe Touron, who has been around her for 20 years in the 15th arrondissement.

The director of the Le Divan bookstore thus remembers the day when the writer Annie Ernaux came to talk about her work, with "Anne, installed in a corner and wisely waiting her turn to speak to her and have a dedication".

Modesty far removed from the portrait drawn by his opponents or ex-relatives like his ex-deputy prime minister, Bruno Julliard, who, in September 2018, denounced the "inconstancy" of the mayor, whom he decried as devoid of any capacity "of exchange and listening", and which governs "by instinct".

"I know the gap between what I really am and what is perceived of me (...) The authority of a man becomes the authoritarianism of a woman", defends the ex-inspector of work in his book "Breathe", published in 2018.

"I have the same character as my father, explosive!", Said in 2013, in an interview with Marie Claire, the native of San Fernando in the province of Cadiz, where she visits at least once a year.

"She is a potomitante woman, as we say in the West Indies, that means that she is the one who runs the house," says the head chef, Babette de Rozières, about the elected representative, aged 60 and mother of three.

- "She leads her boat" -

For a former member of his cabinet, the ex-spokesperson of Martine Aubry at the socialist primary in 2011, "arouses less animosity" than a few months ago when the hiccups multiplied (Vélib ', Autolib, pedestrianization of the Seine quays, resignations).

Be careful, "she has the impression that everything is smiling at her, she is sure of being re-elected", warns this former relative, convinced that "when she has too much self-confidence, she does bullshit".

The supporters of Ms. Hidalgo insist on her open-mindedness, and want as proof her very heterogeneous friendships which range from the Vice-President of the National Assembly and Chiraquien, Hugues Renson, through the related elected PS and associative Jean -Luc Roméro.

But "she must learn to work more collectively, with all the parties," warns an elected majority, by his side for the new campaign.

The elected Modem of the 15th arrondissement, Maud Gatel, does not appreciate her way of "distributing good or bad points to elected officials during the Paris councils". But, "in reality, Bertrand Delanoë, whom I liked very much, was 1,000 times more brittle than her," she adds.

Added to this are conflicts that no one denies. As in 2015, when she decided to ban the use of diesel vehicles in the capital by 2024, Olivier Faure, then elected from the Metropolis and today First Secretary of the Socialist Party, castigates the project in a forum.

The conflict aggravates relations between Ms. Hidalgo and Mr. Faure, whose wife, who then works at the town hall of Paris and "shelved", prefers to leave.

From ancient history. Today, the boss of the PS admits having "admiration for what she does" on the climate, and praises a mayor who "runs his boat and runs it well".

To the point that some, despite her denials, already sees her as a candidate in 2022. "She doesn't want to," says her first deputy Emmanuel Grégoire, while predicting "a very important role in the national political reconstruction" .

© 2020 AFP