The battle to become Mayor of Paris reached a stalemate today as neither of the leading candidates — the Socialists’ Anne Hidalgo and centre-right Natalie Kosciusko-Morizet (NKM) look set to get the 50 per cent plus votes needed to win outright. This means that Parisians will face a run-off election next Sunday — with an all-female shortlist guaranteeing Paris its first ever Madame Mayor.
Brits living in Paris with a vote may wish to reacquaint themselves with certain remarks Mme Hidalgo made about London at the start of the year when she claimed the city was “dirty”, “dangerous” and little more than a “suburb of Paris”. Interestingly only 8,500 British people are registered as Paris residents, while about 400,000 have crossed the Channel to live in London and even have their own French MP. The numbers might say something about the relative attractiveness of our two capitals.
