Anne Hidalgo

In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is Hidalgo and the second or maternal family name is Aleu.

Anne Hidalgo
Official portrait, 2014
Mayor of Paris
Incumbent
Assumed office
5 April 2014
DeputyBruno Julliard
Emmanuel Grégoire
Patrick Bloche
Preceded byBertrand Delanoë
First Deputy Mayor of Paris
In office
18 March 2001 – 5 April 2014
MayorBertrand Delanoë
Preceded byJacques Dominati
Succeeded byBruno Julliard
Councillor of Paris
Incumbent
Assumed office
9 March 2001
Constituency15th arrondissement (2001–2020)
11th arrondissement (2020–present)
Personal details
Born
Ana María Hidalgo Aleu

(1959-06-19) 19 June 1959 (age 65)
San Fernando, Andalusia, Spain
Citizenship
  • France
  • Spain
Political partySocialist Party
Spouses
Philippe Jantet
​
(divorced)​
​
(m. 2004)​
[1]
Children3
ResidenceHôtel de Ville de Paris
Alma materJean Moulin University Lyon 3
Paris West University Nanterre La Défense
Signature

Ana María "Anne" Hidalgo Aleu (French: [an idalɡo], Spanish: [iˈðalɣo]; born 19 June 1959)[2][3] is a Spanish-French politician who has served as Mayor of Paris since 2014, the first woman to hold the office. She is a member of the Socialist Party (PS).

Hidalgo was First Deputy Mayor of Paris under Mayor Bertrand Delanoë (2001–2014), having held the title of Councillor of Paris since 2001.[4] She was elected to the mayorship in 2014 after Delanoë announced he would not seek a third term. During her first term as Mayor of Paris she launched the city-wide Réinventer Paris ("Reinvent Paris") programme,[5] which aimed at refurbishing and allocating obsolescent sites new uses, as well as opened a participatory budgeting platform for projects throughout the city.[6] 2015 was marked by instances of Islamic terrorism: the January Charlie Hebdo shooting and November coordinated attacks, including the Bataclan theatre massacre, the aftermath of which she witnessed first-hand.[7]

Her popularity declined following several instances of alleged mismanagement, to the point that polls showed a majority of voters did not want her to win a second term in 2020.[8][9] First Deputy Mayor Bruno Julliard resigned in 2018, criticising Hidalgo's style of governance.[10] In 2019 she oversaw the disaster recovery efforts for the Notre-Dame de Paris fire. While the COVID-19 pandemic led to a record low voter turnout, she was reelected with a plurality of the vote. During her second term as Mayor of Paris, Hidalgo oversaw the city's response to the COVID-19 pandemic, implementing measures such as nightly curfews, closure of non-essential shops and the introduction of 50 kilometres (31 mi) of pop-up cycle lanes known as "coronapistes" to ease pressure on public transport.[11][12][13] By early 2021, a number of Hidalgo's policies had gained international attention, such as her proposal to remove over half of Paris's car parking spaces and turn the Champs-Élysées into a "fantastic garden".[14][15][16] In 2024, Paris hosted the Summer Olympics; the opening ceremony was held outside of a stadium for the first time in modern history, with the athletes paraded by boat along the Seine.

On 12 September 2021, Hidalgo announced her candidacy in the 2022 presidential election, despite her 2020 pledge to serve a full second term as Mayor of Paris.[17][18] She came tenth out of twelve candidates, with 1.75% of the vote, the lowest result ever for a Socialist candidate in a French presidential election.

  1. ^ Jérôme Bonnet, 'To be Mayor is to work 24 hours a day', FT Weekend Magazine (Financial Times supplement), 28 February/1 March 2015, pp. 18–21
  2. ^ Profile of Anne Hidalgo
  3. ^ "Spanish migrant Hidalgo becomes first woman mayor of Paris". France 24. 5 April 2014.
  4. ^ "La nouvelle vie d'Anne Hidalgo". Le Parisien (in French). Retrieved 23 July 2009.
  5. ^ "Réinventer Paris, le grand défi urbain d'Anne Hidalgo". www.leparisien.fr (in French). 2 February 2016.
  6. ^ Bailly, Emmanuèle (14 September 2014). "Hidalgo lance le premier "budget participatif" de Paris, mardi". france3-regions.francetvinfo.fr (in French).
  7. ^ "'Paris has changed permanently': a day on duty with mayor Anne Hidalgo". the Guardian. 15 April 2016. Retrieved 11 January 2021.
  8. ^ (French) "Sondage : 58% des Parisiens se disent mécontents d'Anne Hidalgo", www.lci.fr (25 March 2018)
  9. ^ (French) "Elections municipales 2020 : Anne Hidalgo, mal-aimée mais favorite à Paris, Le Monde (21 January 2020)
  10. ^ (French) "Paris : démission surprise de Bruno Julliard, premier adjoint d'Anne Hidalgo", Le Parisien (17 September 2018)
  11. ^ "Covid-19: Transmission fears spark bicycle frenzy in post-lockdown Paris". France 24. 16 June 2020. Retrieved 11 January 2021.
  12. ^ "France prepares for curfew in Paris and other cities as Covid-19 cases surge". France 24. 15 October 2020. Retrieved 11 January 2021.
  13. ^ "Paris faces even tighter lockdown restrictions". The Independent. 5 November 2020. Archived from the original on 7 May 2022. Retrieved 11 January 2021.
  14. ^ Reid, Carlton. "Paris Mayor: 'Forget Crossing Through The City By Car'". Forbes. Retrieved 11 January 2021.
  15. ^ Willsher, Kim (10 January 2021). "Paris agrees to turn Champs-Élysées into 'extraordinary garden'". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 11 January 2021.
  16. ^ Yeung, Peter. "How '15-minute cities' will change the way we socialise". www.bbc.com. Retrieved 11 January 2021.
  17. ^ Hidalgo, Anne [@anne_hidalgo] (12 September 2021). "Humblement, consciente de la gravité de cet instant, et pour faire de nos espoirs la réalité de nos vies, j'ai décidé d'être candidate à la présidence de la République française" [Humbly, aware of the gravity of this moment, and to make our hopes the reality of our lives, I have decided to be a candidate for the presidency of the French Republic.] (Tweet) (in French). Retrieved 12 September 2021 – via Twitter.
  18. ^ "Quand Anne Hidalgo promettait qu'elle ne serait pas candidate à la présidentielle", Le Figaro (in French), 12 September 2021