46 Facts About Anne Hidalgo

Anne Hidalgo was elected to the mayorship in 2014 after Delanoe announced he would not seek a third term.

Anne Hidalgo's 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.

On 12 September 2021, Anne Hidalgo announced her candidacy in the 2022 presidential election, despite her 2020 pledge to serve a full second term as Mayor of Paris.

Anne Hidalgo was born in San Fernando, province of Cadiz, Spain.

Anne Hidalgo's paternal grandfather was a Spanish Socialist who became a refugee in France after the end of the Spanish Civil War along with his wife and his four children.

Anne Hidalgo's grandmother died on the return trip, whereas her grandfather was sentenced to death, although this sentence was eventually commuted to a life sentence.

However, due to the social and economic problems in Spain resulting from the implementation of the Stabilization Plan, Anne Hidalgo's parents migrated to France in 1961, this time as economic immigrants.

Anne Hidalgo grew up in Vaise, the 9th arrondissement of Lyon, speaking Spanish with her parents and French with her sister.

Anne Hidalgo's parents are now back in Spain while her elder sister, Marie, manages a company in Los Angeles.

Anne Hidalgo graduated with a master's degree in social law at Jean Moulin University Lyon 3 before completing a Master of Advanced Studies in social and trade unionism at Paris West University Nanterre La Defense.

In 1982, Anne Hidalgo entered the national contest for the Inspection du travail, ranking fifth.

Anne Hidalgo obtained her first inspector assignment in Chevilly-Larue in 1984 at the age of 24, before receiving a post in the 15th arrondissement of Paris where she lived, a few months later.

In 1991, Anne Hidalgo was appointed director of the National Institute of Labour.

Anne Hidalgo then worked for one year as a project manager for the Director of Human Resources at the Ministry of Labour.

Anne Hidalgo retired from the civil service on 1 July 2011, aged 52.

Anne Hidalgo said on 4 April 2013, on RMC: "I earn 5,000 euros net per month for my mandates".

In 2001, Anne Hidalgo was elected councillor in the 15th arrondissement.

Anne Hidalgo joined the Council of Paris, where the left had a majority for the first time since 1977.

Anne Hidalgo confided at the same time to consider a candidacy for Mayor of Toulouse in 2008.

Anne Hidalgo was then responsible for town planning and architecture and seats for the board of directors of the Parisian Urban Planning Workshop.

Anne Hidalgo's office indicated that she would file a complaint for defamation.

Anne Hidalgo became a member of the Committee on Transport and Traffic and is the Chair of the Regional AIDS Information and Prevention Centre.

In 2012 Anne Hidalgo announced her intention to seek the succession of Bertrand Delanoe in the 2014 Paris municipal election.

Anne Hidalgo appointed Pascal Cherki as spokesman for her campaign, assisted by Bruno Julliard, Remi Feraud, Ian Brossat, Colombe Brossel, Seybah Dagoma and Myriam El Khomri.

Anne Hidalgo was elected First Vice President of the Metropole du Grand Paris on 22 January 2016, ex officio to her mayoral position.

Ahead of the Socialist Party's 2017 primaries, Anne Hidalgo endorsed Vincent Peillon as the party's candidate for the presidential election later that year.

Anne Hidalgo's campaign focused on turning Paris into a 15-minute city, aiming to make neighbourhoods more self-sufficient within each arrondissement in Paris having its own grocery stores, parks, cafes, sports facilities, health centres, schools and offices accessible by way of a short walk or bike ride.

Anne Hidalgo came fifth out of seven candidates, the lowest of the five who were professional politicians.

In 2024, Anne Hidalgo announced that she would not seek a third term as Mayor of Paris, naming Remi Feraud as her preferred successor.

Anne Hidalgo was later ostracised by the PS leadership which chose to defend in the National Assembly the "global licence" advocated by Patrick Bloche, Didier Mathus and Christian Paul.

In 2005, Anne Hidalgo took a stand in the debate on cults in France, becoming the president of a committee of vigilance against the cults at the Council of Paris.

Anne Hidalgo was especially opposed to the Church of Scientology and New Acropolis, and participated in a demonstration in front of the Church of Scientology's premises.

From May 2016, in order to combat air pollution in the city, Anne Hidalgo oversaw the introduction of a scheme called "Paris Respire", which included banning all cars from certain areas of Paris on the first Sunday of the month, as well as making public transport and the city's bicycle and electric vehicle schemes free for the day.

Anne Hidalgo worked further to reduce car usage, with an increase in the price of parking meters, a ban on free parking on certain days, and the conversion of certain sections of a highway along the River Seine into a riverside park.

In February 2020, Anne Hidalgo launched her Paris Mayor reelection campaign with a focus on making Paris into a 15-minute city, a concept of urban proximity coined by Carlos Moreno.

Anne Hidalgo announced her intention to create permanent curb-protected cycle lanes and expand the number of "coronapistes", cycle lanes created during the COVID-19 pandemic in France.

Anne Hidalgo intends to remove over half of the parking spaces in Paris by the end of her four-year term in office.

At the start of her first term, Anne Hidalgo stated in an interview that housing is her number one priority.

In November 2023, Anne Hidalgo publicly quit the social media platform X, describing it as a "gigantic global sewer" that is "destroying our democracies" by spreading abuse and misinformation.

Anne Hidalgo's move has been seen as a response to the perceived degradation of the platform since the acquisition of Twitter by Elon Musk but has been linked to attacks on the platform resulting from the TahitiGate controversy.

Anne Hidalgo took part in the March for the Republic and Against Antisemitism in Paris on 12 November 2023 in response to the rise in antisemitism since the beginning of the 2023 Israel-Hamas War.

In March 2024, Anne Hidalgo announced that she will not attend the UN Climate Change Conference in Baku, Azerbaijan, citing the involvement of the Azerbaijani government in the ethnic cleansing of Armenians in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region in September 2023.

Mayor Anne Hidalgo was one of the main faces behind the organization of the 2024 Paris Olympics.

In 2023, Anne Hidalgo faced criticism of her trip to French Polynesia, which her political opponents described as a "holiday".

Since June 2004, Anne Hidalgo has been married to politician Jean-Marc Germain, whom she met when they both worked in the office of Martine Aubry, then Minister of Labour.

Anne Hidalgo had a Catholic education but is today an outspoken atheist.