Paris municipal elections: Socialist Party activists choose Emmanuel Grégoire against Hidalgo's candidate

A choice that sounds like a disavowal for Anne Hidalgo: the Parisian socialists chose Emmanuel Grégoire on Monday, June 30, as their candidate for the 2026 municipal elections, at the end of a tense campaign between the disgraced former first deputy mayor and Rémi Féraud, the outgoing mayor's designated successor.

Emmanuel Grégoire, a 47-year-old MP and former right-hand man of Anne Hidalgo, received 52.61% of the votes cast by some 1,500 Parisian Socialist voters, according to results announced to the press late in the evening by the Paris Socialist Party federation.

Senator Rémi Féraud, 53, a candidate endorsed by the mayor, garnered 44.33% of the vote. The youngest candidate , Marion Waller, 33, a former advisor to the mayor and a surprise candidate in this primary, received 3%.

"From now on, we will discuss with Emmanuel (Grégoire) the gathering of all Parisian socialists to create the conditions for the dynamics of this campaign which starts with a single objective: to allow Paris to remain on the left in March 2026," declared Lamia El Aaraje, first federal secretary of the PS in Paris, while announcing the results.

"I congratulate Emmanuel Grégoire on his appointment. Thank you to Rémi Féraud for his wonderful campaign," Anne Hidalgo responded in a laconic message.

"Thank you to Anne, with whom I worked for ten years. At her side I learned to love Paris," the winner emphasized in front of the activists gathered in a concert hall in the northeast of Paris, who chanted "Whose town hall does it belong to? It belongs to us!"

"From now on, I have only one obsession: to bring together all the socialists," he assured. And "once the battle of the left is won, we must win against the right," he noted, while chants of "unity, unity" echoed from the audience.

By renouncing her bid for a third term in November, Anne Hidalgo, now 66, had designated Rémi Féraud, one of her most loyal supporters, to succeed her. This sparked a fratricidal duel with Emmanuel Grégoire, her former right-hand man with whom she is estranged, who had just declared himself a candidate for City Hall.

Seven months of internal campaigning pitted the two parliamentarians against each other in a climate of tension, which reached its peak in March during the vote on the date of the primary, marred by suspicions of irregularities by the Grégoire camp.

Anne Hidalgo then said that she would not support her former successor if he won, accusing him of having "betrayed" her, particularly after his failure in the 2022 presidential election and his historically low score (1.7%). Her comments shocked many activists.

Following the Socialist Party congress in mid-June, which re-elected Olivier Faure, who supported Emmanuel Grégoire, as its leader , both camps had, however, shown a desire for appeasement by providing the Parisian federation with a joint leadership representing the different factions.

Emmanuel Grégoire has notably highlighted the "right to live" in Paris, with a citizen lease for private tenants, and "quiet zones" without two-wheelers at night. A metropolitan councilor, he has also taken to the streets in Greater Paris.

He boasted of running a "free" campaign, with the support of more than 800 activists, former Prime Ministers Lionel Jospin and Jean-Marc Ayrault, and former mayor Bertrand Delanoë.

His rival, Rémi Féraud, sent him his "congratulations" on X on Monday evening, arguing that "nothing is more essential than keeping Paris on the left." On the same social network, Marion Waller, who arrived with Emmanuel Grégoire in front of the activists and under the cameras, "welcomed" his victory.

Like his two rivals, the winner had ruled out an alliance with LFI. Unlike the ecologist David Belliard who, according to a recent poll, would be the best-placed candidate on the left against Rachida Dati , with 17% of voting intentions, slightly ahead of Emmanuel Grégoire (16%) and Rémi Féraud (14%).