Municipal elections: what challenges for Paris?

Text by: Valérie Gas Follow

Winning or losing in the capital is a bit like winning or losing the municipal elections, the second round of which is scheduled for June 28, especially when we find in Paris all the stakes of this election summarized through the journeys of the three main candidates, Anne Hidalgo, Rachida Dati and Agnès Buzyn who are playing their future and that of their training in this election.

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Anne Hidalgo may perhaps give the Socialist Party reasons to see the future in pink. The outgoing mayor came first in the first round. The management of the Covid-19 epidemic enabled it to be very present during containment. His alliance with the environmentalist David Belliard for the second round places him in the position of favorite.

So Anne Hidalgo presents herself as the candidate for rallying and experience: "  I think that Parisians know that we will be confronted in the years to come with crises and that we need solid, united teams that have including environmental issues, solidarity issues ... Should Paris be a city that must bring back the car as the main mode of travel? It's still an alternative project to ours,  ”says the outgoing mayor.

Left against right, Hidalgo against Dati

Anne Hidalgo targets her main opponent, the right-wing candidate Rachida Dati, who has only one idea in mind: to turn the page on Hidalgo. According to her, her score in the first round shows that the battle is not lost since two-thirds of Parisians did not vote for it: “  People say the match is folded; it only made 29% and therefore today everything is open. For example, someone said to us yesterday : we were so disgusted that we did not go to vote. By not voting, you are promoting what you do not want. This is why we are calling for mobilization,  ”she explains.

► To read also: Municipal: which woman for Paris?

Mobilize abstainers and voters The Republic on the move, disoriented by Agnès Buzyn's hesitation , by pressing where it hurts. "  Someone who says: I hesitated to come back in the second round, it doesn't necessarily reassure Parisians," says Rachida Dati. This is the first point. And the second point is that I found it very curious that there was no word for the victims of the Covid, especially for the nursing staff.  "

Can this be a winning strategy for the Parisian right? It is the only option to get votes against Anne Hidalgo. But to believe the political scientist of Cevipof Bruno Cautrès, this offers him a limited reservoir. "  You can have a walking center-right electorate a little lost who actually can be seduced by everything except Hidalgo, it can bring him some points, but it will not be enough to reverse," he analyzes. For this to really reverse, there would have to be a truly programmatic agreement in good and due form between the two political parties. "

No future for Buzyn?

No agreement was possible with the candidate LaREM. Agnès Buzyn finally got involved alone in the second round campaign and tried with interviews to justify her return, for example on RTL, where she said: "  I am going to the end of this campaign to wear a program. I'm here to play politics and represent the voice of the presidential majority on the Council of Paris, and win this city,  "she said.

►Read also: Coronavirus: Agnès Buzyn attacks government management of the crisis

An ambition with the air of mission impossible, one estimates within its camp even, and which, according to Bruno Cautrès, could cost expensive to Agnes Buzyn. “  I think that when we had the streak that Agnès Buzyn had between her exit from the first round and today, it seems very complicated to have a political future.  "

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• French politics
• 2020 municipal elections
• France
• Paris

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