Deputy Sophia Chikirou was invested on Friday, November 14, 2025, as the head of list for La France Insoumise (LFI) in the Paris municipal elections in March 2026. A close ally of Jean-Luc Mélenchon, she promises a 'rupture' campaign against Anne Hidalgo's management and the right's program. This divisive candidacy aims to win over the popular electorate and oust the PS from City Hall.
Sophia Chikirou, deputy for Paris's 6th constituency and 46-year-old regional councilor, officially announced her candidacy at a press conference on Friday, November 14, 2025, from LFI's campaign office in the 10th arrondissement. Invested without competition within LFI, she was surrounded by the heads of lists for the 17 arrondissements, including Bruno Gaccio in the 7th. 'LFI in Paris is the first popular movement with nearly 20,000 members, over 5,000 active in 130 action groups,' she stated, emphasizing the party's natural involvement in the municipal elections.
She criticizes the exhaustion of the outgoing socialist majority, in power for a quarter century, and promises a 'clear and frank rupture' with Anne Hidalgo's 'unambitious' management, accused of failing families amid soaring rents. 'When Parisian families are forced to leave because housing is too expensive, it's because the policies in place do not meet their needs,' she asserted. She also rejects Rachida Dati's (Republicans) austerity program, who leads in polls. At the heart of her campaign: reducing housing costs and a 'municipal education' with massive investments for after-school animators striking against precariousness.
Seen as divisive even on the left, Chikirou will embody 'popular Paris' and refuses a first-round alliance with Emmanuel Grégoire's PS or David Belliard's ecologists, unlike ongoing negotiations between those forces. She leaves the door open for a second-round deal with the ecologists if she exceeds 10%, a threshold a recent poll credits her with 12%. 'I'm not afraid of anyone. You know me now,' she declared. LFI, with no elected members on the Paris Council, relies on the PLM law reform for direct election of councilors. Starting this weekend, 5,000 militants will leaflet in left-leaning arrondissements to boost turnout.