COP21 in Paris, 2024 Olympics, nomination to the UN... Anne Hidalgo's international obsession

Since she took charge of France's largest city almost ten years ago, Anne Hidalgo has had her eyes turned abroad. His position, obviously, requires it. “Paris is an international city,” she likes to repeat. Her predecessor, B ertrand Delanoë, of whom she was first assistant for thirteen years, had already cultivated the international dimension of Paris.

Even the municipal opposition, although very angry against the elected official, readily recognizes that the “world city” status of the capital obliges its leader to maintain close relations beyond the borders of France. The fact remains that the first councilor takes particular care and that never before has the mayor of Paris been so engaged on these issues.

After making the Paris COP in 2015 a springboard for her international reputation, Anne Hidalgo took over as president of the Cities Climate Leadership Group (C40 Cities) in 2016, a powerful network of 100 global metropolises created in 2005 to fight against global warming. She will serve in this role for four years, before continuing her commitment to the C40 in other key positions - she was recently elected vice-president of the steering committee.

These functions are in addition to the presidency of the International Association of French-speaking Mayors (AIMF), which she has held continuously since 2014. Not to mention the victorious candidacy for Paris 2024, which she submitted to the International Olympic Committee after having long been hostile to the Olympics. In 2014 during her municipal campaign, she judged that “the Games were expensive, and that expensive Games were not relevant”. Times have changed. “She wants to project to the world the image of a completely revolutionary Paris,” says Aurélien Véron, spokesperson for the right-wing opposition group in the municipal council.

The fact remains that, by dint of multiplying herself abroad, Anne Hidalgo ended up receiving honors that few politicians in France can boast of. In addition to an appearance in Time Magazine's famous ranking of the 100 most influential people in the world after her re-election in 2020, the mayor of Paris received last month the prestigious “Urban Development Visionaries” award from the Urban Land Institute , an international network of 39,000 members, very influential in the real estate sector.

But, as the adage points out, no one is a prophet in his own country. While she thought she could count on this international plebiscite to embody a convincing political offer during the last presidential election, she suffered the snub that we know by only collecting 1.75% of the votes.

Also read: Anne Hidalgo is among the most influential urban planners on the planet, according to a ranking

His international inclination fuels rumors about the rest of his career. “We sometimes hear about the possibility of an appointment to the United Nations or another major international organization after the town hall,” confesses a municipal councilor, without really believing it. Anne Hidalgo's poor relations with the head of state offer few guarantees of presidential support, however valuable for a possible appointment. The recent controversy over his level of English, after his speech at COP28 in Dubai, does not help matters. But, above all, Anne Hidalgo no longer excludes being a candidate for mayor of Paris again in 2026.

If she wants to return in two years, the mayor of Paris will have to justify her numerous trips far from the capital, which irritate the Council of Paris. Like his controversial trip in the fall to New Caledonia and French Polynesia. The twentieth trip since 2020, according to an opposition count. “These trips only serve to praise one's action, never to seek inspiration,” judges Aurélien Véron, who cites the “caricatural example” of Anne Hidalgo's astonishing declarations in Brussels in 2022 on the importance of a cycling plan for the reconstruction of… bombed kyiv. Enough to raise an outcry.