Emmanuel Grégoire begins his first day in office as mayor of Paris on Monday, a week after beating rival Rachida Dati in the second round of local elections. The 48-year-old Socialist now steps into the limelight after years in the shadow of his political mentors. So who is he and what are his plans for the French capital?
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Grégoire was officially sworn in on Sunday, having won 50.5 percent of the vote – beating conservative contender and former culture minister Dati, on 41.5 percent, while Sophia Chikirou of the hard left got just over 8 percent.
Shortly after winning office, he took a bike ride through the streets of Paris towards City Hall, in a nod to his promise to make the French capital (even) greener.
Succeeding fellow Socialist Party member Anne Hidalgo, who held the post for 12 years, he now heads the 163-seat Paris city council – the country’s largest – and will handle a budget of €10.5 billion.
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Grégoire was little known to the general public before the election campaign. He has been described as a long-distance runner in Paris politics, having spent two decades as a loyal Socialist party insider behind the scenes.
Grégoire was born in Les Lilas, an eastern suburb of Paris, in 1977. He studied political science in Bordeaux and joined the Socialist Party in 2002, aged 24.
He worked in the medical and healthcare sector before going into politics full time.
In 2010 he became chief of staff of Paris’s then-mayor, Bertrand Delanoë, then worked in the prime minister’s office under Socialist president François Hollande.
He was first elected to the Paris City Council in 2014 and became Hidalgo’s first deputy mayor from 2018 to 2024, handling key portfolios including the budget, urban policy and public services.
He was elected an MP in 2024, and last year launched his bid for mayor.
Rivalry within the left
Despite being the Socialist Party’s pick to succeed Hidalgo, a dispute between the two almost derailed his bid.
“Anne Hidalgo didn’t back me. She did everything she could to torpedo my candidacy. I am neither her candidate, nor her heir,” Grégoire told broadcaster Franceinfo last month, without elaborating.
He acknowledged their closely shared views about the future of Paris, but said his approach was “different” – describing himself as “available, accessible and always listening”.
Having initially supported another Socialist figure as her successor, Hidalgo did ultimately endorse Grégoire.
At the city level, Grégoire led a broad left-ecologist political coalition of Socialists, Greens and Communists. But he refused any alliance with the hard-left party France Unbowed (LFI), led by firebrand Jean-Luc Mélenchon.
LFI had been a traditional ally of other left-wing parties, but the alliance collapsed as political rivals accused its politicians of tolerating anti-Semitic rhetoric. Some critics also blamed the hard left for fuelling tensions after a far-right militant was beaten to death in Lyon last month.
Ahead of the runoff, LFI candidate Chikirou offered to join forces with Grégoire against Dati, but he declined, saying they did not share the same “values”.
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Housing Parisians, not just tourists
Grégoire put housing at the centre of his election campaign, repeatedly declaring: “Airbnb is my enemy.”
“I’m fine with Parisians renting out their primary residence when they go on vacation. But I don’t want entire neighborhoods in Paris to be emptied of their residents because apartments are used exclusively to house tourists,” he said.
With Paris long one of the world’s top tourist destinations, tens of thousands of apartments are used as tourist rentals instead of being available to Parisians, he noted, pledging to create 60,000 new social and affordable housing units as mayor.
“We have the same problems in Paris as in New York, San Francisco, cities with which I have worked a lot on these issues,” Grégoire told the news agency AP. “What happens if we don’t regulate? Speculation drives residents out.”
He also vowed to fight overcrowding at sites such as the Louvre Museum and the Montmartre neighbourhood, by urging tourists to experience lesser-visited locations.
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Continuing his predecessor’s green policies, Grégoire has promised to further increase the number of cycle lanes and make the River Seine cleaner.
He also vowed Paris would resist the right and far right in the lead-up to next year’s presidential election.
“Paris will be the heart of the resistance against this alliance of the right, which seeks to take away what we hold most precious and fragile – the simple joy of living together,” he said last Sunday, shortly after the exit polls showed he was set to become the 48th mayor of the city.
(with AP)
