Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo will not seek another term in 2026

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Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo said she will not seek a third term in local elections in 2026, opening up the race for one of the most coveted positions in French politics. 

Hidalgo, a Socialist who was first elected to Paris city hall in 2014, has been a polarising figure, drawing admiration but also strong pushback for measures like harsh restrictions on car traffic or scrapping e-scooter rentals that have been closely watched by other capitals. 

She had been expected to seek potentially a third mandate after Paris’s successful Olympic Games this summer. But Hidalgo on Tuesday said she would step aside and backed Rémi Féraud, a Socialist senator and mayor of a Parisian arrondissement, as a leftwing candidate for the job. 

“I won’t stand for a third term,” Hidalgo said in an interview with Le Monde. 

“I’ll be mayor until my last day, with the same energy as in the beginning,” she said, adding the next 15 months would be focused on “finishing what we have to do without slowing our battle against climate change”.

The Paris mayorship is seen as a stepping stone to other senior positions, and past mayors include the late president Jacques Chirac. Hidalgo’s own bid for the French presidency in 2022 however ended with a disastrous 1.75 per cent share of the vote.

Conservative Rachida Dati, who is the current culture minister and a long time rival and critic of Hidalgo in the Paris local assembly, is expected to try to run again for the mayorship.

Other potential contenders include former prime minister Gabriel Attal, who was appointed by Emmanuel Macron in January but had to step down in September after the president called early elections which resulted in a hung parliament and a change of government.

The local elections are due a year before France’s next presidential race in 2027 in which Macron can no longer stand after serving two terms in office.

Prime Minister Michel Barnier’s government is at risk of being easily toppled by opposition parties, and fresh parliamentary elections could take place next year.

Hidalgo is best known for social policies on housing and sweeping changes to Paris’s layout as part of a green makeover, with bike lanes popping up across the city. In 2016 she got rid of a highway running along the Seine river to turn it into a leafy pedestrian zone. 

But the measures were criticised by some drivers, and other campaigns have also been controversial, such as alleging Paris is dirtier or less well managed than in the past, including due to its high debt. Recent changes like hikes to parking fees for large SUV type cars are also deeply unpopular with some. 

Edwige Diaz, a far-right Rassemblement National lawmaker, said Hidalgo’s departure would be “good news” as she had become a “true nightmare” for drivers. Clément Beaune, a former transport minister under Macron, said he clashed at times with Hidalgo but paid tribute to her “commitment to Paris and courage”.