Anne Hidalgo
Ana María Hidalgo Aleu (born 19 June 1959), known professionally as Anne Hidalgo, is a Spanish-born French politician and member of the Socialist Party who has served as Mayor of Paris since 2014, the first woman to hold the office in the city's history.[1][2] Born in San Fernando, Andalusia, Spain, during the Franco dictatorship, she immigrated to France with her family at the age of two, later acquiring French citizenship and pursuing a career as a labor inspector before entering politics.[1][3] Hidalgo's rise in politics began in 2001 when she was elected to the Council of Paris and appointed deputy mayor for social affairs under Bertrand Delanoë, a position she held until succeeding him in 2014 after winning the municipal election.[3][4] She was re-elected in 2020 in alliance with green parties, defeating candidates from Emmanuel Macron's party amid a focus on ecological urbanism.[5] Her administration has prioritized transforming Paris into a "15-minute city" through initiatives like expanding pedestrian zones, bike lanes, and public transport while restricting vehicle access, including diesel bans and road space reallocation, which have earned international acclaim for climate action but faced domestic backlash for exacerbating congestion and air quality issues in some assessments.[6][7] Under Hidalgo's leadership, Paris hosted the 2024 Summer Olympics, a long-term project involving significant infrastructure investments, yet her tenure has been marked by controversies including a doubling of the city's debt to approximately €9 billion, allegations of mismanagement in public spending such as unreimbursed luxury clothing expenses, and criticisms over rising crime, declining cleanliness, and policy decisions perceived as prioritizing ideology over practicality, leading to low approval ratings where polls indicated a majority of Parisians opposed her re-election.[8][9][10] Hidalgo unsuccessfully sought the Socialist nomination for the 2022 French presidential election, receiving only 1.7% of the vote, underscoring divisions within the French left.[5]