‘I won’t be running for a third term’ – Technologist

Would she or wouldn’t she? The Paris mayor’s potential bid for the 2026 municipal elections had been a hot topic in recent weeks. The answer is out: First elected in 2014 and re-elected in 2020, Anne Hidalgo tells Le Monde that she does not wish to seek a third term. She insists that she will remain mayor “until the last day” and that she will continue to be involved in politics after 2026. She hopes that Senator Rémi Féraud, president of the Paris en Commun group (which brings together Socialists and left-wing independents) on the Paris council and one of her oldest loyalists, will succeed her by bringing together the entire left, with the exception of radical left party La France Insoumise (LFI). On a national level, although she is highly critical of the 2025 budget bill currently being debated in Parliament, the Socialist politician believes that negotiation with Prime Minister Michel Barnier’s government is still preferable to a vote of no confidence.

Will you be a candidate in the 2026 municipal elections?

I won’t be running for a third term. It’s a decision I made a long time ago. I’ve always believed that two terms were enough to bring about profound change. Out of respect for Parisians, I wanted to announce it early enough and at a time that would allow me to prepare a serene handover to support a team, in this case led by Rémi Féraud. I know him well, I’ve liked him for a very long time. He’s the one who will be able to carry on our history and reinvent a future for Paris. He has the necessary solidity, seriousness and ability to bring people together. As mayor of the 10^th [arrondissement] and as president of the majority group since 2014, we have fought so many battles together. Rémi has always maintained a respectful but firm relationship with the partners on the left who are part of our team and, as a senator since 2017, he also has a national dimension.

How far should the left rally, and what do you think of other candidates on the left, notably Emmanuel Grégoire, your former deputy?

Emmanuel Grégoire has chosen to leave for the Assemblée Nationale to take up the fight against the far right: There’s likely to be a dissolution by the end of 2025. You can’t be a candidate for everything. Rémi is a candidate for a rallying of the left and is destined to become the next mayor of Paris. But I’m not the one who decides, I’m not imposing anything, I’m simply giving an endorsement. It will be up to Paris’s Socialist activists to decide. I hope and wish that the Greens and Communists will rally behind his candidacy in the first round of the municipal elections. As for La France Insoumise, we’re not at all in the same register of values and their recent proposal to repeal the law that bans justifying terrorism makes that clear.

You have 64.02% of this article left to read. The rest is for subscribers only.