Hidalgo, Dati, Buzyn: three candidates for Paris, three strategies

Anne Hidalgo, Rachida Dati or Agnès Buzyn? Three candidates for the mayor's armchair of the capital that the Parisians will decide on June 28 during the second round of the municipal elections. If the outgoing mayor leaves favorite, his two challengers feel they have their playing card.

For these three candidates, the main issue will be participation. During the first round, on March 15, which took place two days before the start of the containment linked to the Covid-19 pandemic, only 44.6% of the French went to the polls. And in Paris, the participation rate was even slightly lower, at 42.3%.

>> To read: Phoning, networks, proxies: the funny campaign of the second round of municipal elections

Three months later, voters still seem reluctant to vote. According to an Ifop poll published on Monday, only 38% of them plan to vote in the 4,827 municipalities where a second round is held. And 29% of those who declare not wanting to vote explain their choice "only by the risks of being affected by the coronavirus". However, a large number of electors usually decide to vote or to abstain in the last days preceding the poll.

While waiting to know how many Parisian voters will come to vote on June 28, Anne Hidalgo (Socialist Party), Rachida Dati (Les Républicains) and Agnès Buzyn (La République en Marche), who will debate Wednesday from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m., on FranceInfo, France 3 Paris Île-de-France and France Bleu Paris, each rely on a very distinct strategy.

• Anne Hidalgo, ecology headlining

Leading after the first round with 29.33% of the vote, the outgoing mayor enters the second round in the position of favorite, especially since she took advantage of the inter-lap to build an alliance with David Belliard, the candidate of Europe Ecology-The Greens, arrived fourth on March 15 with 10.79% of the vote.

This expected alliance - the outgoing mayor and the Greens already headed the town hall together during the previous term - made Anne Hidalgo, the only representative of the left still in contention, the social and ecological candidate. The joint project of the two candidates, presented Tuesday, June 16, thus provides for the renovation of social housing, the establishment of the "first local plan of bioclimatic town planning in France" (the bioclimatic design allows to adapt the architecture of a project according to the characteristics and particularities of the location) and the creation of a municipal energy management company in Paris (on the Eau de Paris model).

"The Manifesto for Paris": find our joint work with @David_Belliard and our proposals for the future of our city after the # COVID__19 crisis. cc @ParisEnCommun @ ecoloparis2020 # Hidalgo2020 # Municipales2020 https://t.co/mzHVnqLnUf

Anne Hidalgo also proposes the exit of diesel in 2024, the limitation of the speed to 30 km / h in Paris, the creation of a network of cycle tracks "vélopolitain" to cross Greater Paris by bike, or the transformation of the half of the parking spaces in five years to enlarge the sidewalks. Other projects: "pedestrianize and green the surroundings of 300 schools" and create in each arrondissement at least one pedestrian center. The ring road will also be transformed, with the creation of a lane reserved for shared transport (bus, shuttles, taxis, carpooling) and, ultimately, a cycle path.

>> Read: Municipal elections: how are mayors elected?

On the economic level, the socialist candidate wishes to "support the recovery" after the confinement. The City of Paris devotes an envelope of 60 million euros, including 5 million to support "positive impact tourism" (ecological tourism and compatible with the fight against global warming), 15 million for artists and cultural actors, 6 million to help start-ups, businesses and cultural businesses, and 4 million for the social and solidarity economy.

• Rachida Dati, voting useful as a strategy

Distanced in the first round (with 22.72% of the votes against 29.33% for Anne Hidalgo), Rachida Dati bet on the useful vote in the second round, hoping to fill up on votes from the opponents of the outgoing mayor. For this, he must delight the voters who preferred Agnès Buzyn on March 15.

Mathematically, the political calculation is simple: an Ifop-Fiducial poll credits, for the second round, the outgoing mayor with 44% of the votes, against 33% in Rachida Dati and 20% in Agnès Buzyn. This means that more than one voter in two intends to vote for a candidate other than Anne Hidalgo, judges candidate LR. Convinced that "everything is open", Rachida Dati therefore calls for mobilization, with a website to help with proxies so that her voters do not get "stolen" from the election.

📢✉️ # WORLD PREMIERE! The #DatipourParis teams provide a revolutionary site for proxies after this period of health crisis! If # democracy is deconfigured, democracy must also adapt!
👇https: //t.co/O1DyP3osLN#AvecMaVoix pic.twitter.com/uOossQRO6q

His campaign is primarily aimed at right-wing voters with a program that advocates for an armed municipal police, a family-oriented policy, proposing in particular the removal of the highest prices in canteens and, coronavirus forces, a plan for relaunch "for companies at risk of closing". The mayor of the 7th arrondissement, who has also received the support of the president of the National Rally, Marine Le Pen, harshly attacks the outgoing mayor concerning his record in terms of cleanliness or security and advocates for the creation of brigades 24 hour rapid cleanliness intervention.

>> To read: Municipalities in Paris: Rachida Dati, when the right dreams of alternation

But it is also the more centrist voters of Agnès Buzyn that the candidate LR covets, by repeating that "the only candidacy capable of carrying an alternation in Paris, it is that of the Dati For Paris lists", and by unhooking sharp spikes to his opponent. "I don't need a ball on my luggage rack," she notably tackled last week to explain the lack of agreement with LREM, which rejected the idea.

• Agnes Buzyn, in the wheel of government

With 17.26% of the votes in the first round, Agnès Buzyn arrived largely behind by her competitors Anne Hidalgo and Rachida Dati. She left the Ministry of Health in February during the global Covid-19 crisis to replace Benjamin Griveaux as a candidate in Paris. Then she had disappeared from radars for many weeks after the first round of municipal elections after calling the election campaign a "masquerade" because of the health crisis that was raging. But Agnès Buzyn finally came back into the light at the end of May, confirming her maintenance as a candidate for La République en Marche in Paris.

>> Read: Municipal 2020: the Republic on the move is seriously leaning to the right

Even if the press has revealed text messages from the Secretary of State for Gender Equality, Marlène Schiappa, deeming her victory impossible, the candidate LREM says that she is going "to win". "Installing the idea that we are third is false", insists in particular those around him, stressing that "there are two districts where we are in the lead (the 5th and the 9th), seven where we are second ".

The traders, the employees, all the actors of the Parisian economic life, are the architects of our quality of life and the influence of our city. We owe them a lot.

My proposal to support them. ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/RO3kyTC2kh

To prevail, Agnès Buzyn is counting on the support of Parisians for government action, with a vast mail campaign targeting one in two households. "Anne Hidalgo and Rachida Dati systematically criticize the action of the government. All the Parisians who think that in the majority there is today an action to protect our economy and the vulnerable people must mobilize for the lists of Agnès Buzyn" , said Tuesday, June 16, during a press briefing his spokesperson Pierre-Yves Bournazel.

Agnes Buzyn also highlights her economic recovery plan for the capital, where the post-coronavirus crisis promises to be "very hard" according to her. This plan, which it intends to implement on July 1, will be endowed with 400 million euros, including 170 million for a solidarity fund entrusted to the mayors of boroughs. "It is a question of helping the tradesmen, craftsmen and restaurateurs to survive, in particular thanks to an exemption from all taxes the first year, even next year if the crisis persists", she promised in an interview published in Le Journal du Dimanche. The presidential candidate also wants to experiment for a year with a liberalization of opening hours throughout Paris, evenings and weekends, to spread the peak hours for consumers, as well as peak hours in transport in common.

With AFP and Reuters

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