{"id":46327,"date":"2021-09-12T15:23:31","date_gmt":"2021-09-12T15:23:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=46327"},"modified":"2021-09-12T15:23:31","modified_gmt":"2021-09-12T15:23:31","slug":"paris-mayor-anne-hidalgo-announces-french-presidential-bid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=46327","title":{"rendered":"Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo announces French presidential bid"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The 62-year-old daughter of Spanish immigrants is the hot favourite to win the nomination of the Socialist party.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, has announced she will run for president in next year\u2019s election, joining a growing list of challengers to centrist incumbent Emmanuel Macron.<\/p>\n

The 62-year-old daughter of Spanish immigrants who fled Francisco Franco\u2019s dictatorship is the hot favourite to win the nomination of the Socialist party.<\/p>\n

But the first female\u00a0mayor\u00a0of\u00a0Paris\u00a0will need to expand her profile nationally to become France\u2019s first woman president.<\/p>\n

Minutes after her announcement on Sunday, one of her rivals, far-right leader Marine Le Pen kickstarted her third presidential campaign in the southern city of Frejus.<\/p>\n

Hidalgo chose the dockyards of the city of Rouen in the northwest for her announcement rather than the gilded backdrop of Paris city hall.<\/p>\n

Paris\u00a0mayor\u00a0since 2014, she enters the race as a polarising figure whose campaign to squeeze cars out of the capital and make the city greener has divided residents.<\/p>\n

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Humblement, consciente de la gravit\u00e9 de cet instant, et pour faire de nos espoirs la r\u00e9alit\u00e9 de nos vies, j\u2019ai d\u00e9cid\u00e9 d\u2019\u00eatre candidate \u00e0 la pr\u00e9sidence de la R\u00e9publique fran\u00e7aise. pic.twitter.com\/viaXwURm53<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Anne Hidalgo (@Anne_Hidalgo) September 12, 2021<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Translation: Humbly, aware of the gravity of this moment, and to make our hopes the reality of our lives, I decided to be a candidate for the presidency of the French Republic, Hidalgo posted on Twitter.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Climate promises<\/h2>\n

In her speech, Hidalgo said her upbringing in the working-class housing estates of Lyon showed how the French school system could help children overcome \u201cclass prejudice\u201d.<\/p>\n

But she warned that the French republican model, promising liberty, equality and fraternity, was \u201cdisintegrating before our eyes\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want all children in France to have the same opportunities I had,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Journalist Pierre Haski told Al Jazeera that Hidalgo\u2019s background is one \u201cof her main selling points\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe is putting forward her personal story as this daughter of a working-class Spanish immigrant [family] who has made it to become the mayor of Paris, the world-class capital in the country,\u201d Haski said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo that\u2019s the kind of achievement that she is promoting, saying I want everybody else to have the same kind of opportunities that I have had. She has a programme \u2026 against inequality, more education, more social assistance for the poor,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

The mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, flanked by Rouen\u2019s mayor Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol (R) meets medical staff members at Rouen\u2019s hospital, western France [Thomas Samson\/ AFP]<\/figure>\n

However, there are still big challenges ahead, according to Haski.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the weaknesses of her candidacy is that being the mayor of Paris obviously gives her a lot of visibility and importance, but it\u2019s also a handicap,\u201d Haski explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cOutside Paris, people resent the centrality of the capital, and they resent what they see as the arrogance from Parisians, so being the mayor of Paris is not necessarily the best asset,\u201d Haski said.<\/p>\n

Polls currently show Hidalgo would garner only seven to nine percent in the first round of voting for president in April, if picked to represent the Socialists.<\/p>\n

She said one of her top priorities would be to transform France into a low-carbon economy, accusing Macron of failing in his climate pledges.<\/p>\n

Macron has yet to confirm that he will seek a second term, but he is widely expected to do so.<\/p>\n

The current president and far-right leader Le Pen are polling at between 20 percent and 24 percent and are currently the most likely second-round runners.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The 62-year-old daughter of Spanish immigrants is the hot favourite to win the nomination of the Socialist party.The mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, has announced she will run for president in next year\u2019s election, joining a growing list of challengers to centrist incumbent Emmanuel Macron. The 62-year-old daughter of Spanish immigrants who fled Francisco Franco\u2019s…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spotlight_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46327","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=46327"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46327\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=46327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=46327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=46327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}