The Mayor of Paris : Anne Hidalgo Has A Very Big Summer #Vogue #Olympics
On the eve of the Paris Olympics : a fascinating interview in Vogue US with the mayor of Paris : Anne Hidalgo
( Yes, she was the one who swam in the Seine this week !)( Hope she is OK!) . Read more on Vogue
“On International Women’s Day this year, March 8, Anne Hidalgo, mayor of Paris since 2014, convened a conference at the magnificent 19th-century Hôtel de Ville under the title question: “A Woman = A Man? A Question of Power.” Dressed in a discreetly chic, navy dress with gold buttons, Hidalgo was in her element, addressing an audience of fellow feminists, social justice advocates, and socialist politicians. “You are all examples!” she said, welcoming them. “You have been targeted, judged…but you continue the struggle with a force, a humility.” She lamented the state of women’s rights all over the world, particularly in Afghanistan and Iran, and railed at insidious sexism closer to home. “Women in power are analyzed and décortiquées,” she said, using a verb for peeling shrimp that also means dissected, scrutinized. “Politics is hard for everyone,” she continued, to applause, “but it is harder for women.”
Other distinguished speakers echoed her frustration. Michelle Bachelet, former president of Chile, said, “People like Anne Hidalgo and I are criticized for being women, called authoritarian for making decisions—this is our job!” And Dilma Rousseff, former president of Brazil, described how she had been deposed by an online trolling campaign accusing her of corruption—charges of which she has since been acquitted. Shirin Ebadi, the Iranian human rights lawyer and Nobel Peace Prize winner, told me afterward, “I do believe it’s very important to have more women in all levels of political activity and leadership.” Karen Bass, mayor of Los Angeles, was impressed: “If I had to capture Anne Hidalgo with one word,” she told me coming offstage, “it would be bold.”
I met Anne Hidalgo in the Hôtel de Ville in early March. Her office is famously larger than the president’s in the Élysée Palace and is arrived at by ascending a marble staircase in a building so voluminous and gilded and mirrored, with statues in alcoves and ceilings painted with goddesses and the tenet of the republic—Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité—that there is nothing to do but stand dumbstruck with Cinderella awe at the history and grandeur of France’s Belle Époque.
The mayor of Paris is responsible for a little over two million inhabitants, a budget of 10 billion euros, and a municipal workforce of more than 50,000. Her life veers between global issues and social ills; ceremonial duties and petty scandals; and sudden crises and the quotidian of bureaucratic officialdom.”Read the article here on Vogue
Want more? This is also fantastic piece on the creative director of the Paris opening ceremony ( well worth a read and the photos are amazing too) .
