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POLITICS

Reader question: Who runs Paris while Hidalgo runs for French presidency?

The news that Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo has formally launched her bid to become president of France in 2022 has sparked all sorts of political analysis, but one reader asked us who runs Paris in the meantime?

Reader question: Who runs Paris while Hidalgo runs for French presidency?
Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo. Photo: Patrick Herzog/AFP

Question: I live in Paris and I’m quite supportive of Hidalgo’s policies here, especially in regards to cycling, so I was interested to see that she’s standing for the presidency. But I do wonder, who will be running things in Paris while she’s off campaigning?

Being a mayor is a well-worn stepping stone towards taking power at a national level, Jacques Chirac was mayor of Paris before ascending to the presidency in 1995, while previous presidents including François Mitterand and François Hollande have also served as mayors. 

It’s also quite common for politicians to flip between roles at a local and national level – previous Prime Minister Edouard Philippe was Mayor of Le Havre before he was appointed PM, at which point he gave up the mairie, before standing again and winning in July 2020 as he ended the PM role.

His successor Jean Castex was the mayor of Prades in south west France when he was appointed PM.

Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin served as mayor of Tourcoing in north east France. He gave up the mayor’s role when he joined the government and instead became deputy mayor, but in June 2021 stood and was elected in departmental elections in Tourcoing.

According to his Twitter feed, he’s available on request to perform weddings in Tourcoing (a standard function for local officials).

Holding multiple roles is known as cumul de mandats (accumulation of mandates) in French and in recent years the rules have been tightened up on this, ensuring that people cannot hold too many roles at the same time – before 2017 it was common for mayors elected to national office to hold onto their role and simply appoint a deputy.

The president is not permitted to hold any other office during their time at the Elysée, although they do hold the ceremonial role of Co-Prince of Andorra.

Other politicians face limits on the mandates they can hold, with certain role being incompatible, including that of mayor of a town of more than 3,500 inhabitants with a national office.

The above only applies to politicians once they are elected, and it is usual for candidates to hang on to their current role during the campaign – the obvious example being a president seeking re-election who combines running the country with his or her own election campaign (Emmanuel Macron has so far not confirmed whether he will stand in 2022  although it is widely expected that he will).

If Hidalgo is elected as president – and current polling suggests she will not be – she will have to give up being Mayor of Paris, but during the election campaign she is highly likely to hold on to the role, with support in the day-to-day running of things from her current team.

Her deputy, Emmanuel Grégoire, is widely regarded as her successor should she choose to step down for any reason before her current term as mayor ends in 2026.

Speaking to Le Figaro, Grégoire assured readers that Hidalgo remains “fully mayor of Paris” while conceding that he will “have work to do”. 

He added: “She knows my loyalty; I know her trust.”

Do you have a question on any aspect of life in France? Email us at [email protected] and we will do our best to answer it.

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POLITICS

New Caledonia airport to reopen Monday, curfew reduced: authorities

New Caledonia's main international airport will reopen from Monday after being shut last month during a spate of deadly unrest, the high commission in the French Pacific territory said, adding a curfew would also be reduced.

New Caledonia airport to reopen Monday, curfew reduced: authorities

The commission said Sunday that it had “decided to reopen the airport during the day” and to “push back to 8:00 pm (from 6:00 pm) the start of the curfew as of Monday”.

The measures had been introduced after violence broke out on May 13 over a controversial voting reform that would have allowed long-term residents to participate in local polls.

The archipelago’s Indigenous Kanaks feared the move would dilute their vote, putting hopes for eventually winning independence definitively out of reach.

READ ALSO: Explained: What’s behind the violence on French island of New Caledonia?

Barricades, skirmishes with the police and looting left nine dead and hundreds injured, and inflicted hundreds of millions of euros in damage.

The full resumption of flights at Tontouta airport was made possible by the reopening of an expressway linking it to the capital Noumea that had been blocked by demonstrators, the commission said.

Previously the airport was only handling a small number of flights with special exemptions.

Meanwhile, the curfew, which runs until 6:00 am, was reduced “in light of the improvement in the situation and in order to facilitate the gradual return to normal life”, the commission added.

French President Emmanuel Macron had announced on Wednesday that the voting reform that touched off the unrest would be “suspended” in light of snap parliamentary polls.

Instead he aimed to “give full voice to local dialogue and the restoration of order”, he told reporters.

Although approved by both France’s National Assembly and Senate, the reform had been waiting on a constitutional congress of both houses to become part of the basic law.

Caledonian pro-independence movements had already considered reform dead given Macron’s call for snap elections.

“This should be a time for rebuilding peace and social ties,” the Kanak Liberation Party (Palika) said Wednesday before the announcement.

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