Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo announces French presidential election | French News

The 62-year-old daughter of Spanish immigrants is a popular candidate to win the Socialist Party’s nomination.

Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo announced that she will run for president in next year’s elections, adding to the list of more and more centrist incumbent Emmanuel Macron’s challengers.

The 62-year-old daughter of Spanish immigrants who fled the dictatorship of Francisco Franco is a popular candidate to win the Socialist Party’s nomination.

But the first female mayor of Paris needs to expand her image in the country to become the first female president of France.

Minutes after the announcement on Sunday, one of her rivals, far-right leader Marina Le Pen, began her third presidential campaign in the southern city of Frejus.

Hidalgo chose the shipyard in Rouen in the northwest for her announcement, rather than the gilded background of the Paris City Hall.

Since becoming the mayor of Paris in 2014, she has contested as a polarizing figure, and her campaign to squeeze cars out of the capital and make the city greener has caused disagreements among residents.

Humblely aware of the seriousness of this moment, and let our hopes become the reality of our lives, I decided to become a candidate for the President of the French Republic. pic.twitter.com/viaXwURm53

-Annie Hidalgo (@Anne_Hidalgo) September 12, 2021

Translation: Being humble, aware of the seriousness of this moment, and letting our hopes become the reality of our lives, I decided to become a candidate for the President of the French Republic. Hidalgo posted on Twitter.

Climate commitment

Hidalgo said in her speech that her growth in a working-class residential area in Lyon demonstrated how the French school system can help children overcome “class prejudice.”

But she warned that the French republican model that promised freedom, equality and fraternity was “disintegrating before our eyes.”

“I hope all children in France have the same opportunities as me,” she said.

Journalist Pierre Huski told Al Jazeera that Hidalgo’s background is “one of her main selling points.”

“As the daughter of Spanish working-class immigrants, she presents her personal story [family] Who has become the mayor of Paris, the country’s world-class capital,” Husky said.

“So this is the kind of achievement she is promoting, and she said I want everyone else to have the same opportunities as me. She has a plan…to combat inequality, provide more education, and provide more social assistance to the poor,” He added.

The Mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo, accompanied by the Mayor of Rouen, Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol, met with the medical staff of the Rouen Hospital in Western France [Thomas Samson/ AFP]

However, according to Husky, there are still huge challenges ahead.

“One of her weaknesses is that being the mayor of Paris obviously gave her a lot of popularity and importance, but it is also an obstacle,” Huski explained.

“Outside Paris, people hate the centrality of the capital. They hate the arrogance they think of Parisians, so being the mayor of Paris is not necessarily the best asset,” Huski said.

Current opinion polls show that if selected to represent the Socialist Party, Hidalgo would only get 7% to 9% of the votes in the first round of the presidential election in April.

She said that one of her first tasks was to transform France into a low-carbon economy, and accused Macron of failing to deliver on its climate promises.

Macron has not confirmed that he will seek re-election, but it is widely expected that he will do so.

The current president and far-right leader Le Pen’s approval rating is between 20% and 24%, and it is currently the most likely to enter the second round.