A Question of Power.
You are all examples!
she said, welcoming them.
LA CHEF“Yes, it’s difficult to be mayor.” Mayor Hidalgo photographed in her office in Paris, wearing Dior.Makeup, Adrien Pinault.Sittings Editor: Max Ortega.
You have been targeted, judged…but you continue the struggle with a force, a humility.
Politics is hard for everyone, she continued, to applause, but it is harder for women.
Other distinguished speakers echoed her frustration.
“The stadium is the city,” Hidalgo said. Grandstands going up in the Place de la Concorde where events like skateboarding and BMX freestyle will be held.
I met Anne Hidalgo in the Hotel de Ville in early March.
In addition, Hidalgo was under personal investigation.
I suggested it had been a difficult week.
TRUE BLUEMayor Hidalgo with her husband, Jean-Marc Germain, in 2023.Photograph by Gabriel Legrand.
The justice wanted to have clarification; we gave them all the documents.
At her request, our interview was in English.
Hidalgo spoke in broad strokes, cheerfully answering some questions, more careful with others.
In conversation she is relaxed and warm, rolling her eyes at the absurdities of political life.
Intimates speak of her vivacity and indefatigable enthusiasm.
French journalists complain she has a langue du boisa wooden tongueand tends to remain safely on message.
I have a sense that she is more introverted than her profession would suggest.
Yes, its difficult to be mayor, Hidalgo said.
But I have a vision.
And Im always fighting against opponents.
But mention her name to Parisians, and the response is often: Hidalgo?
Okay, Hidalgo told me, inured to the slings and arrows.
Ana Maria Hidalgo Aleu was born in 1959 in southern Spain.
I think my sister has always been very driven, Mary told me.
I think nothing would ever stop her; [not] male sexism, even back then.
He was seduced, he said, by her positivity and her strength.
It was on the 29th August.
You remember the date!
Yes, he smiled, I remember the date and I remember her speech.
(They were married in 2004.)
It was, Germain said, her first improbable victory….
Nothing was given to her.
When Arthur was born in December 2001, Hidalgo took no maternity leave.
Even in the last stages of her pregnancy, she was making politics.
I was running all day.
But it was a choice.
For me it was very important to be independent; it was not up for discussion.
Then she added in French, Grande agressivite.
Shes a woman who is always moving forward, her husband told me.
Its like when youre cycling; if you dont pedal, you fall off.
Its an apt metaphor; in many ways Hidalgos tenure as mayor has been defined by bike lanes.
Squeezed into narrower lanes, traffic congestion in Paris has gotten worse.
According to naysayers, the city has become dirty and messy and full of rats.
Since the pandemic, there have been garbage strikes and problems with staffing levels for street cleaners.
Ongoing infrastructure refurbishment of gas and water pipes mean jackhammers and dug-up streets.
The stadium is the city, Hidalgo said.
Grandstands going up in the Place de la Concorde where events like skateboarding and BMX freestyle will be held.
A quarter of Parisians now live in social housing, up from 13 percent in the late 90s.
But these are not the Parisians who are living in Paris and who voted for me.
It was difficult, Hidalgo said of that defeat.
I carried the flag to explain the conviction of social democracy.
Okay, no one heard what I said in the campaign, but I said it.
The whole campaign, it was never about the ideas.
It was always about us.
Hidalgo is not the only female politician to complain of a double standard in the public discourse.
She cant be an international rock star and at the same time a victim of sexism.
I asked Hidalgo how she coped with the attacks against her.
you’re gonna wanna be objective, she said.
But I have a vision.
Hidalgo admitted she tends to act quickly, because I am combative.
We all have our faults.
Hidalgo is often described as iron or steel or titanium.
I think shes built herself a pretty good armor, her sister Mary told me.
Its a life shaped by battles.
She has found an international platform among the worlds big-city mayors.
Cities, resistant and resilient, she believes, can pave the way, politically and environmentally.
Shes proud to point out that this summers Games will be the most environmentally conscious to date.
Most events will be staged in existing venues.
The stadium is the city, Hidalgo told me.
After a century-long prohibition, Hidalgo hopes that Parisians can swim in the Seine after the Games.
She never stops, Germain told me.
I love to walk in the mountains.
I love to swim.
Its not very easy to live a life that is not so normal.
I have a go at be normal.
I do the shopping myself.
Germain laughed when I asked him if his wife likes to cook.
He espouses a different, more grassroots, approach to environmentalism than his mother.
When he was younger, it was two separate worlds, his father told me.
Hidalgo, naturally reticent, keeps her family life private.
For example, we never go out to dinner, or maybe once a year, Germain told me.
Shes got a happy marriage, Mary told me.
Shes got a lot of support there.
Shes always happy with what shes doing, said Germain.
Hidalgo has remained publicly coy about her plans to run for a third term as mayor.
She told me her ambition was to continue to work on climate change and social issues.
I want to be freevery free!
I asked, but she only laughed instead of answering.
