Paris (AFP)
We were no longer waiting for her: Anne Hidalgo formalized on Saturday, two months before the municipal elections, her candidacy for a second term as mayor of Paris with the desire to put ecology at the heart of her project.
At the end of December, she did not hide her impatience to descend into the arena, and told AFP that she was "looking forward". However, the elected socialist is the last to launch, hitherto following from a distance and with a certain greediness the first sometimes hazardous steps of its competitors, especially at LREM, undermined by internal rivalry between Benjamin Griveaux and Cédric Villani.
"Yes. I am a candidate for a new mandate as mayor of Paris. This city that I love, that I am passionate about, to which I dedicate a large part of my life", underlines Ms. Hidalgo in the columns of Le Parisien on Saturday, ending to an open secret.
"I want to continue the action started in 2001 and amplified in 2014. It is now a race against the clock. We have ten years to act in the face of the climate emergency", adds the one who was the assistant to Bertrand Delanoë before to succeed him in a city where the left has been in power for nineteen years.
She also ensures that she will not be "a candidate for the presidential election in 2022" if she is re-elected, while some adversaries suspect her of wanting to use Paris as a springboard for the Elysée.
For the municipal election, announced more uncertain than ever by analysts, Ms. Hidalgo, 60, is currently racing in the lead. In an Ifop poll commissioned by the team of Cédric Villani, it is ahead, with 22.5% of the voting intentions, the candidate LREM Benjamin Griveaux (17%), the LR Rachida Dati (17%), the dissident Cédric Villani ( 14%) and environmentalist David Belliard (12.5%).
Candidate so far in the 15th arrondissement, this time she will be in second position in the 11th arrondissement, where her ally of the outgoing majority, the EELV candidate David Belliard, is also running. A choice that is not to the taste of those around the ecologist.
- Make the difference of entry -
Another novelty: the one that is still socialist, is supported this time by the platform "Paris en Commun" which includes socialists, elected representatives of Generations, communists and personalities from civil society including the former president of the social Samu Eric Pliez (candidate for the town hall of the 20th arrondissement) and former journalist Audrey Pulvar (on the lists of Paris Center).
The elected representative who does not extend to any alliances in the second round, intends to propose the largest possible meeting.
On the PS side, we are not offended by this new label. "She does not want to give the feeling that she is the woman of an apparatus or a political party", analyzes with AFP the First secretary of the PS, Olivier Faure, who only asks him "to maintain this city to the left".
"The campaign will be short and dynamic. Our desire is to make a difference as soon as we enter the campaign," insists AFP the first secretary of the Paris socialist federation, Rémi Féraud.
Ms. Hidalgo's first outings will be in the northeast of the capital, popular districts whose votes are coveted by all the candidates.
Monday evening, she will visit activists and elected officials gathered within "Paris en Commun".
Before the confrontation of ideas, his opponents plan to attack his record. Center-right candidate Pierre-Yves Bournazel denounces a mandate marked by "a degradation of the daily life of Parisians and too centralized governance". The LR candidate in the XIV arrondissement, Marie-Claire Carrère-Gée, criticizes "an expensive management with a debt of 6 billion euros".
"Anne Hidalgo puts an end to an unbearable suspense, ironically from her side Benjamin Griveaux. She will be able to propose during these next two months ideas to solve problems that she has not resolved or that she herself created at over the past six years. "
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