Headaches Mount For Paris Mayor After Failed Presidential Bid

Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo, whose political capital has withered since a failed bid for the French presidency, is facing headwinds as she battles to revamp the city ahead of the Summer Olympic Games just two years away

Paris, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 20th May, 2022 ) :Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo, whose political capital has withered since a failed bid for the French presidency, is facing headwinds as she battles to revamp the city ahead of the Summer Olympic Games just two years away.

Hidalgo handily won re-election in 2020 as the first woman to run the French capital, but an ill-fated attempt to unseat President Emmanuel Macron in elections last month has her opponents smelling blood.

Despite garnering international plaudits for her efforts to reduce car use, Hidalgo scored only 1.7 percent in the first round of the presidential vote -- and just 2.2 percent among Paris voters.

Governing in a fractious alliance with the Greens, she has been handed a series of humiliating setbacks in recent weeks, jeopardising a promise to transform one of the world's most popular cities that attracted some 50 million visitors a year before the coronavirus pandemic hit.

The latest blow came last week, when Paris police chief Didier Lallement opposed her plan for a pedestrian-friendly makeover for areas between the Eiffel Tower and the Trocadero esplanade across the Seine river, citing even worse traffic jams in one of Europe's densest cities.

Just a few days earlier, his office coldly responded to Hidalgo's plan to "vegetalise" the iconic Champs-Elysees avenue.

Lallement has the final word given the proximity of the presidential Elysee Palace, the American Embassy and scores of other sensitive official buildings.