A month and a half after her stinging failure in the presidential election, Anne Hidalgo expected to be heckled for her return to the Paris City Hall. She was not disappointed. The tributes to recently deceased elected officials barely finished, the leader of the opposition, Rachida Dati, electrified the Council of Paris, Tuesday, May 31, by launching into a violent diatribe against the socialist town hall. Its angle of attack: the dotted presence of Anne Hidalgo on the municipal council. Instead of chairing the council, the city councilor notably chose to surrender, Wednesday 1is June, in Madrid, to take part in a meeting of the foundation created by the International Olympic Committee to welcome refugee athletes. An absence denounced by the right.
“Your attendance rate at meetings barely exceeds 20%”launches Rachida Dati. “Paris bores you, she continues. Yes, the Parisians bore you. Your presence is as anecdotal as your presidential score, 1.7%”, a humiliating result that she repeats on a loop, despite the boos from the left. The mayor is undeterred. “It had escaped me that you had won an election”she retorts, rebelling against the way the mayor of 7e borough is trying to transform the council into a “pitiful media circus”.
“The Dati show is enough! »
New pass of arms a few minutes later. Patrick Bloche, a socialist deputy, recalls that in 1995, in the middle of the presidential campaign, the mayor, Jacques Chirac, had also slipped away after having opened the council meetings. “He won the election! »cuts Rachida Dati. “It was his third candidacy… Wait! », retorts Anne Hidalgo, smiling. Does the socialist imagine she is already carrying out new presidential campaigns, after the fiasco of her first attempt? The exchange shows above all his desire not to let go of anything at the Town Hall.
Judging the mayor weakened, the elected Les Républicains (LR) decided to attack her constantly, hoping that she would end her term in shreds. And that Rachida Dati can win the municipal elections of 2026. The development of the surroundings of the Eiffel Tower, the felling of trees, the city’s debt, the financing of the Olympic Games… Not a subject on which they do not highlight cause the mayor. “If the left arrives with a knotted stomach at each advice, it’s perfect, and it must continue”explains one of the strategists of the Parisian right under the seal of anonymity.
Anne Hidalgo does not intend to let her guard down. “The Dati show is enough! », annoys his first deputy, Emmanuel Grégoire. In the immediate future, in reality, it is to the questions of their left-wing allies that the mayor and his team are most attentive. Without the support of ecologists, communists and Generation members. s, the Socialist Party alone cannot have anything adopted by the Council of Paris. However, many of these elected officials are worried about the relative inaction of the Town Hall, after two years when the Covid and the presidential campaign have slowed down the launch of major projects. On Tuesday, elected LRs were ironic about the differences within the left. Immediate response from Anne Hidalgo: “The day we need you to manage the majority, we will call you. »