Anne Hidalgo, the socialist candidate to become the next president of France, is meeting the press at the Jean Jaurès Foundation in central Paris.
Jaurès, an historian and socialist leader who lived in late 18th and early 19th century Paris, is considered one of the founders of what would become modern French socialism.
But, now, Hidalgo may be presiding over the party’s collapse.
She is not used to being such an underdog.
In 2020 she was elected mayor of Paris for a second six-year-term in an alliance with the Greens. And she’s become something of an international superstar for having done so much to make her city a model for a greener and cleaner urban future.
Paris has carved up roads to squeeze in bike lanes and trees, opened routes along the banks of the River Seine to cyclists and pedestrians. By 2024, a huge chunk of the heart of Paris will be car-free. By 2026 more than 170,000 trees will be planted across the city, and by 2030, 50 percent of the city is set to be covered by planted areas.
And as a presidential candidate, she’s insisted that she’s the only candidate who can unite the French left.
