Paris Mayor Enters Race for 2022 French Presidency

Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo said on Sunday she would run for president in 2022 on a Socialist ticket.

Hidalgo took this decision though polls indicate that she has little chance of mounting a serious challenge unless she can unite the fragmented left.

She is among the few senior left-wing politicians to emerge from President Emmanuel Macron’s 2017 redrawing of the political landscape relatively unscathed.

The first woman to run the French capital in 2014 is polling at about 8% voter support in April’s first round, while Macron and far-right leader Marine Le Pen are currently polling at between 20% and 24%.

“Knowing the seriousness of our times and to give hope to our lives, I have decided to be a candidate for the French presidency,” the 62-year-old said when she announced her bid in the Normandy city of Rouen.

The mayor promises a greener economy, the re-industrialisation in old manufacturing heartlands, putting citizens in front and centre of the European Union and improving education.

As mayor of Paris, Hidalgo has won plaudits for converting the once traffic-choked banks of the River Seine into bustling promenades, for getting tough on polluting vehicles and creating new bike lanes during the COVID-19 crisis.

While her profile has received a boost as Paris takes over as the host of the next Olympic Games, she remains a relative unknown outside the capital’s ring-road.