The red alert over Paris marked the end of the hottest week on record in France. From her bright office at the Hôtel de Ville and near the Seine, Mayor Anne Hidalgo (San Fernando, Cádiz, 66 years old) could see how her adopted city is increasingly resembling Seville with extreme temperatures above 39 degrees, something that scientists have been warning about for some time.
Anne Hidalgo was precisely the host of the recent conclave of progressive mayors of the C40 group, on the tenth anniversary of the Paris Agreement, advocating for the role of cities in the face of climate change and closing ranks against misinformation and populism which, in her opinion, have led to a worrying setback in recent months. In the final stretch of her term ending in 2026, after her failed attempt in the 2022 presidential elections, the socialist leader reflects on her next political move while reviewing the climate battles and ecological transition that Paris has undergone, accelerated by the Olympics.
The mayor with Andalusian roots (her parents from Cádiz emigrated to Lyon when she was a child) cannot hide her pride in finally seeing Parisians swimming in the Seine river more than a century later. This achievement has "a high symbolic value" for her, but it is also a direct response to the challenge of heatwaves in cities.
Systematically criticized by the right during her term, a victim of campaigns like The Plunder of Paris against the alleged uncivic drift of the capital, Hidalgo finally feels vindicated and believes that citizens will not allow a reversal of all the progress made in the last decade, with over a thousand kilometers of bike lanes and the plan for 500 new garden streets recently approved in a local referendum. "I am not nostalgic, I have my feet in the present," assures the mayor, explaining why she will not run for a third term and anticipating that her political future lies in her "commitment to climate and other issues that motivate me."
"Climate misinformation campaigns are funded by groups linked to the fossil fuel industry, extreme right-wing interests, and populist politicians"
"Ecology is often perceived as renunciation, and I believe we need to change the narrative, emphasizing what we all gain when we breathe cleaner air".