Ten years of Anne Hidalgo as mayor of Paris: a catastrophic outcome?

A more cycle-friendly Paris

A street in Rivoli invaded by cyclists, where until recently cars were king: the decline in space dedicated to automobiles in the capital is striking.

“In ten years, we have developed the equivalent of a Paris-Bordeaux”, or some 500 km of cycle paths, the socialist, elected for the first time in 2014, then re-elected in 2020, congratulates herself in the Nouvel Obs.

By encouraging Parisians to take the bike to avoid the crowding of the metro, the health crisis has given a boost.

“Since there have been cycle paths, walking around Paris by bike has been great,” judges David Da Silva Frade, a 41-year-old consultant.

But these developments are far from unanimous, like the rue de Vaugirard track, both on the decision-making process and on the final choices.

“We discover one morning that we have a cycle path at the bottom of our house!”, criticized opponent Rachida Dati in 2020, asking for more consultation with district mayors.

Pierre, a 34-year-old project manager in the industry, deplores the fact that new cycle paths are "built against common sense, too small from the design stage, without taking into account turning curves or intersections". Result: “everyone is arguing”.

By provoking this “displacement chaos”, “Hidalgo has succeeded in fomenting a war of all against all”, tackles opponent LR David Alphand.

After having obtained, following a legal battle, the pedestrianization of the roads on the right bank, Anne Hidalgo is also proud of closing 200 streets to traffic to leave more spaces for pedestrians.

While the transformations are well received by local residents, many deplore the endless work, sometimes repeated from one year to the next.

More social housing, fewer Parisians

This is Anne Hidalgo's other major achievement: with less and less available wasteland, the town hall managed to reach the threshold of 2023% social housing imposed by the SRU law at the end of 25. “Social diversity is thus preserved,” underlines the Town Hall.

But that did not prevent more than 120.000 Parisians, out of 2,1 million inhabitants now, from leaving the capital in a decade. An “anomaly” in a Parisian region experiencing demographic growth, underlines Mr. Alphand who sees an “objective link between the arrival of Anne Hidalgo and the departure of Parisians”.

The reason for this is the high cost and cramped conditions of housing. Forced to find a solution, Anne Hidalgo now welcomes the “dedensification” of her city, a “necessity” for “living better in Paris”.

“Fall in the birth rate, increase in the number of separations, aging of the population”: his first deputy Emmanuel Grégoire, who hopes to succeed him in 2026, highlights “demographic phenomena” hitting Paris before “the entire country”.

A road that leaves something to be desired

Ransacked tree bases, visible presence of rats, dangerous potholes, traffic lights or patched street lamps, bollards on the ground, questionable cleanliness... The opposition castigates an abandoned public space, while the city's debt is approaching ten billion euros.

At the end of March, the local media relayed the dismay of a bar owner who, fed up with seeing passers-by stumble and injure themselves on a defective paving stone, paid for the repair out of his own pocket.

The town hall "has considerably strengthened the resources" allocated to roads but "there is still progress to be made", admits Emmanuel Grégoire, highlighting "the phenomenal intensity of use" in one of the densest and the most visited in the world. “We have to constantly redo things, whether for incivility or accidents.”

Three years after its emergence, the SaccageParis movement remains active, galvanized by the humiliating score achieved in her own city (2%) by the former PS candidate for the 2022 presidential election.

Cleanliness is a “structural problem that Anne Hidalgo has not resolved,” believes political scientist Rémi Lefebvre.

A third term?

A decade after her first accession to the chair of mayor of Paris, on March 30, 2014, and four years after her re-election in the midst of a health crisis, in the summer of 2020, could Anne Hidalgo be a candidate for a third term?

The person concerned maintains the suspense, repeating in the Nouvel Obs on Thursday March 28 that she will announce her decision "when the time comes", that is after the Olympic Games (July 26 - August 11).

Two years before the deadline, the recent Ipsos poll for La Tribune Dimanche may have cooled the elected socialist, credited with 13% to 14% of voting intentions in the first round. Behind the environmentalist senator Yannick Jadot (18%), and very far behind his hated opponent, Rachida Dati (30-38%).

The Parisian socialists recall that at the end of her first term, the polls showed her losing to the Macronists... before she was re-elected hands down.

Building on this success, the mayor then attempted the 2022 presidential adventure, despite her promise to devote herself only to Paris.

Result: the worst score of the PS in the election (1,75%), and a party then fractured in two, Anne Hidalgo criticizing the first secretary Olivier Faure for having insufficiently supported her.

To add insult to injury, his score was barely better in his own city (2,17%).

For political scientist Rémi Lefebvre, his “bold but very unpopular public policy choices” partly explain his poor scores, in a city “where the right remains firmly anchored” despite its “gentrification”.

Isolation “print”

By reducing the place of the car - particularly on the banks following a tough legal battle, but also on the rue de Rivoli - it "has alienated a lot of people", believes this specialist in local power.

Praised on the left for her courage and tenacity, Anne Hidalgo also suffers from an authoritarian image reported not only by her detractors, but also by those involved in Parisian life who described to AFP a town hall that was brutal in its decisions.

"It's she who decides" and the employees of the Town Hall are there to "apply the decisions", says one of them, for whom the offices of her deputies "suffer from her very poor relations with the executive" of Emmanuel Macron, of whom she remains a notorious opponent.

They are prohibited from meeting or interacting with members of the government, which “slows down” their work and gives them “the impression of being isolated,” says this source.

Some files are still moving forward: thus the State and town hall have led hand in hand the battle for the swimmability of the Seine, a budget of 1,4 billion euros.

The mayor announced that she wanted to keep her promise to swim around June 23. The president too... without specifying when.