Paris mayor re-elected as Green wave rolls across local voting
PARIS>> Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo declared victory in her re-election bid as municipal elections postponed by the coronavirus crisis have seen a strong breakthrough from the Greens across the country.
Sunday’s voting also appears as a setback for French President Emmanuel Macron’s young centrist party, which was fielding municipal candidates for the first time and still lacks local roots across France.
Hidalgo, a Socialist, largely beat conservative candidate Rachida Dati, according to estimates based on partial results. She was first elected as Paris mayor in 2014. Her re-election will allow her to oversee the 2024 Summer Olympics.
Hidalgo is backed by the Europe Ecology-The Greens party, which gained strong influence nationwide.
Green candidates won in France’s major cities including Marseille, Lyon, Strasbourg and Bordeaux, often taking the lead in their alliance with the weakened Socialist
Party.
The second round of the municipal elections has seen a record low turnout amid lingering worries about the pandemic.
Only 40% of voters cast ballots as people were required to wear masks in polling stations, maintain social distancing while in lines and carry their own pens to sign voting registers.
Poll organizers were wearing masks and gloves for protection, and in some places they were separated from voters by transparent plastic shields. Mail-in voting isn’t allowed in France.
Macron expressed his “concerns” over the low turnout, “which is not very good news,” according to his office.
Interior Minister Christophe Castaner, in charge of organizing the elections, said that “everywhere across France, health measures ... were able to be respected. That is a satisfaction.”
Sunday’s voting was meant to choose mayors and municipal councilors in about 5,000 towns and cities.
The electoral process was suspended after the first round of the nationwide municipal elections on March 15, which produced decisive outcomes in 30,000 mostly small communes. Macron’s critics say he shouldn’t have allowed the first round to go ahead at all, since it was held just as infections were exploding across Europe and just two days before France introduced sweeping nationwide lockdown measures.
The spread of the coronavirus has slowed significantly in France in recent weeks and almost all restrictions on social and business activity have been gradually lifted over the last month.