The mayors of Paris: an eventful history

On Monday, the president announced the postponement of the second round of municipal elections due to the health crisis. But the results of the first round are however ratified, said the Minister of the Interior in stride. Anne Hidalgo therefore remains in the lead to seek again the mayor of Paris. And what a town hall! In this new episode of "At the heart of history", produced by Europe 1 Studio, discover the turbulent history of the mayors of Paris. 

We are during the Hundred Years War. An insurrection broke out. In 1356, the disaster of the Battle of Poitiers led to the captivity of King John the Good. Her son, dolphin Charles is 19 years old. He wants to convene States General. Opposite him stands the "Prévôt des Marchands", Etienne Marcel. There is then no mayor in Paris. Etienne Marcel is a merchant, a rich clothier defending the bourgeoisie, married twice to richly endowed women. Ambitious, dreaming of playing a role that we would say political, he pushes Parisians to revolt against the dolphin.

On February 22, 1358, the second Thursday of Lent, Etienne Marcel, followed by 3,000 men wearing a blue and red cap, the colors of the city, entered the Palais de la Cité. According to a well-established ploy, they reach the dolphin's room. Etienne Marcel presents himself as the tutor and the savior of the future king. He wears a blue and red cap and has the two most important advisers of the dolphin massacred. Worse: Etienne Marcel dares to wear a black and gold cap, that of the dolphin. He considers himself the future monarch!

The first attempt at a Parisian insurrection

But by considering himself master of Paris and of the situation in the kingdom at war with the English, Etienne Marcel misjudged the dolphin. Behind his timid air, this pale and thin young man, and let's say it without prestige, hides a patience, a tenacity and a practical sense of a statesman. 

On March 14, taking the official title of regent of the kingdom, the dolphin leaves Paris with the consent of the Provost, who believes he is isolating him by moving him away. Serious mistake by Etienne Marcel! Le Prévôt does not realize that outside of Paris, he no longer has any influence. On March 25, supported by the nobility, the dolphin held an assembly in Senlis. Then, surprising everyone, he seized Meaux and Montereau, the two large markets that supply Parisians. Paris is quickly threatened with famine.

From the balcony of his pillared house, near Notre-Dame, Etienne Marcel has harangued the population, the hungry crowd no longer hears this tribune. Because Paris is hungry!

Master of an angry city, acting as a dictator, Etienne Marcel then tried to propagate the revolt in the provinces. He allies with peasants from the north of Ile-de-France, the Jacques. But Paris is blocked by an army loyal to the dolphin. The Parisian people are quickly tired of the excesses of Etienne Marcel. The implacable Provost is suspected of wanting to deliver the city to the English and the King of Navarre. Now the people consider him a rebel and even a traitor. In June, the dolphin's army camped outside Paris. Etienne Marcel digs defense ditches. They will become streets: Saint-Jacques, Saint-Bernard. 

But these precautions will be useless: Etienne Marcel is considered a felon. The population is exasperated by its broken promises and its shenanigans. On the night of July 31, 1358, during a brawl, Etienne Marcel was assassinated by one of his former companions, Jean Maillart, a bourgeois loyal to the dolphin. It finally returns to Paris on August 2. The future Charles the Wise will deserve his nickname: he acts as a moderate triumphant. He exercises no vengeance and ensures that the widow and the children of the rebel Provost receive decent help. Thus ends the first attempt at an insurrectionary commune in Paris.

May 21, 1970: Paris finally has a legal status

Under the Old Regime, the city, administered by a Provost assisted by aldermen, grew and embellished in particular by the town planning that kings François 1er, Louis XIII, Louis XIV and Louis XV would develop. Before the Revolution, Paris was still not, administratively, a real city. A legal status is finally recognized in the capital by a decree of May 21, 1790 .... It is during this period that we can speak of a first Mayor of Paris. It is Jean-Sylvain Bailly. Bailly is a renowned astronomer, member of the Academy of Sciences. Elected deputy of the Third Estate for Paris in the General Assembly of 1789, president of the National Assembly on June 17, Jean-Sylvain Bailly was not elected mayor. He was appointed on July 15, the day after the storming of the Bastille. Curiously, he is assisted by a municipal council which is elected to him by citizens. 

Having a little money in these troubled times, Bailly plays an important role. By welcoming Louis XVI to Paris, Bailly hands over the keys of the city to the king and a tricolor cockade, a new rallying sign imagined by La Fayette: the white of the monarchy is framed by blue and red, the colors of Paris. Without saying a word, Louis XVI fixed the cockade on his hat and got ready to enter the Hôtel de Ville. Bailly refuses to comply with the sovereign's orders. He said to him: "Sire, Henry IV had reconquered his people. Here, the people have reconquered their king".

Bailly will lose the esteem of the Patriots on July 17, 1791. After the pitiful equipped with Varennes and the return of the royal family to Paris, the Parisians are invited to go to the Champ-de-Mars to sign the petitions demanding the forfeiture of Louis XVI, guilty of having fled. Suddenly, we discover two hidden people on the spot. Surely royalist agents! Excited, the crowd slays their throats! Bailly reestablishes martial law. La Fayette has the National Guard fired, without warning, against the "criminals of lèse-Nation". The shooting killed several dozen people. 

Bailly, who has lost all authority, resigns. La Fayette is running for mayor but he is beaten. His ambiguous positions have constantly disturbed the game. Later, Bailly will testify in favor of Marie-Antoinette before the Revolutionary Court. He will be sentenced to death and guillotined on the Champ de Mars.

His successor, Jérôme Pétion de Villeneuve, a lawyer, was elected mayor of the Paris Commune in November 1791. On August 10, 1792, he took part in the insurrection which led to the fall of the monarchy. Then, paradoxically, he tries to raise Normandy against the Convention. Having failed, he committed suicide on July 27, 1794. The candidates did not rush to succeed him. This is how there will be no more mayor of Paris until 1848 ...

Now the central government is wary of Paris 

Under the Directory, the town following the collapse of the Ancien Régime aroused distrust from the central government. Under the Empire, Napoleon did not want the mayor of Paris but only that the mayors of the twelve arrondissements of the time be appointed and essentially responsible for the civil status. In reality, Paris is under the dual, vigilant authority of the Seine prefect and the Police prefecture, created in 1800. And the latter holds rights and responsibilities in matters of public order which, in the other municipalities , except Lyon and Marseille, are exercised by the mayors!

On April 20, 1834, under the reign of Louis-Philippe, if there is still no mayor of Paris, a law distinguishes the General Council of the Seine from the Municipal Council. It was the latter who, on February 28, 1848, was replaced by a mayor, appointed and docile. His name is Louis-Antoine Garnier-Pagès. It remains in place only until March 5. Mayor for only two weeks: it's a record! 

Under the Second Empire, it was the energetic Prefect Haussmann who, in reality, combined municipal functions and those of Prefect of the Seine. Napoleon III wants to transform Paris which needs it badly. Paris is growing and going from twelve to twenty arrondissements.

On September 4, 1870, the day of the fall of the regime, Etienne Arago was appointed mayor when the Republic was barely proclaimed. It remains in place only until November 15. His successor, Jules Ferry, is also named. Responsible for maintaining order and supplying Paris during the siege of the capital by the Prussians, he quickly became unpopular because of the appalling conditions of daily life. Quickly nicknamed "Famine Ferry", he had to leave Paris in March 1871.

After the Commune, its excesses and its dramas, the law of April 4, 1884 on municipal organization in France does not concern Paris. Have we forgotten Paris? No, we are wary! The capital is punished for its painful experience of emancipation. There is no longer the mayor of Paris. If there is a President of the Municipal Council, he has no power, except that of representation. The state does not trust him. In fact, as under the Second Empire, in Paris, the Third Republic only granted authority to the Prefect of the Seine. 

The upheavals of the post-war period

We are now in the summer of 1944. The Parisian Liberation Committee takes over the powers of the General Council of the Seine and the Municipal Council until March 1945. Several upheavals must be recalled: in April of this year 1945, the Parisiennes , by the will of General de Gaulle, the first French women to use their right to vote. The Communist Party collects more than 30% of the votes. Then, with the socialist André Le Troquer, the Town Hall was managed by the left until 1947. Then, a spectacular upheaval took place: the Gaullist Rassemblement Populaire Français (RPF), won the majority. Pierre de Gaulle, a nephew of the general, is elected president of the Municipal Council. 

Several personalities will then mark the life of the capital, such as Edouard Frédéric-Dupont and Pierre-Christian Taittinger. But a spectacular transformation is imperative: on July 10, 1964, the Paris region, due to its urban and demographic expansion, became an unmanageable whole. By decree of Prime Minister Michel Debré, the departments of Seine and Seine-et-Oise disappear in favor of seven new departments, including that of Paris. We are now talking about the Ile de France Region. But still no mayor ... 

A mayor in Paris, but deprived of certain powers

Elected President of the Republic in 1974 with a very good result in Paris, it was Valéry Giscard d'Estaing who finally restored the status of mayor. This gives the municipal campaign an unusual tone. In 1976, the candidate for the Elysee Palace for the City of Paris was the Minister of Industry, Michel d'Ornano, also mayor of Deauville.

But on January 11, 1977, Jacques Chirac, former Prime Minister, announced his rival candidacy with force: "I come to the capital of France because in our history, since the Revolution of 1789, whenever Paris fell, France has been defeated "

On March 13 and 20, 1977, then on the 25 with the vote of the councilors who elected him, Jacques Chirac was elected Mayor of Paris by 67 votes out of 109. He has been the first mayor since 1871, for over a century! In June 1982, after the arrival of François Mitterrand at the Elysée Palace, Paris became the stake in a battle between his mayor and the President of the Republic.

In the municipal elections of 1983, Jacques Chirac's lists won the twenty town halls. The grand slam! Re-elected in 1983, he held office until May 22, 1995. He was mayor for 18 years. When he entered the Elysée Palace, Jean Tiberi, elected on May 22, 1995, became the fourteenth mayor of Paris. After violent legal controversies, an (aborted) attempt at a municipal coup by Jacques Toubon and the unenthusiastic candidacy of Philippe Séguin, Jean Tiberi's position is weakened.

On March 18, 2001, even if the right remained slightly in majority in Paris, the socialist Bertrand Delanoë became the twelfth mayor of Paris and the first man on the left directing the Hôtel de Ville since the end of the 19th century.

However, at that time, if the laws of 1975 and 1982 restored Paris to its municipal autonomy, the sensitive areas of the police and public order remained under the authority of the prefect of Paris and the prefect of police. Thus, the mayor of Paris is the only municipal magistrate who does not have all the powers of a mayor. For example, Parisian taxis are the responsibility of the Police Prefecture and not of the Town Hall.

A spectacular symbol

Thirteenth mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo obtained, in 2016, to be able to redistribute certain powers between the State and the City, in particular for traffic. His decisions have provoked many controversies. It also wanted to group the first four districts, those in the center of the capital. 

The mayor or future mayor of Paris will retain a major role as an opponent or a supporter of the state. Paris remains a spectacular symbol and the object of all ambitions ... We cannot forget Etienne Marcel: he has his street, his metro station. And his equestrian statue is very close to the Town Hall… At the end of the 18th century, the German poet Goethe, dazzled by Paris, already wrote: "Imagine this universal city, where each step on a bridge, on a place, recalls a great past, where at every street corner unfolded a fragment of history "

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"At the heart of history" is a Europe 1 Studio podcast

Author and presentation: Jean des Cars 

Project manager: Adèle Ponticelli

Realization: Guillaume Vasseau

Diffusion and edition: Clémence Olivier

Graphics: Europe 1 Studio