Leftwing victor has pledged to cut officials’ expenses and luxuries, but first must turn his attention to a series of crises
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hen Paris’s new leftwing mayor, Emmanuel Grégoire, leapt on a bike for a victory tour along the French capital’s large network of new cycle lanes on Sunday night, he was sending a crucial message to Paris residents.
Not only would he continue to build bike lanes and keep limits on cars in the city, keeping the French capital’s pro-cycling focus on environmental issues and reducing its dangerous air pollution., he was also seeking to style himself as humble, frugal – “of an absolute moral rigour”, in his words – after promising to shrink Paris officials’ hefty expenses accounts and end the use of chauffeur-driven cars.
Grégoire, 48, squarely beat the rightwing former minister Rachida Dati who had wanted to take the French capital after 25 years of it being run by the left. His win was part of a final round of mayoral elections in large towns and cities across France, seen as a crucial test of the political temperature ahead the 2027 presidential election when Emmanuel Macron’s two terms in office will end, and Marine Le Pen’s far-right, anti-immigration National Rally (RN) is seen as well placed to make the presidential final round.
