Rachida Dati, the Culture Minister and Les Républicains candidate for Paris mayor, is outlining her program on mobility, security, and after-school care. Backed by MoDem, she criticizes current policies and suggests urban transformations for the Seine quays and Rue de Rivoli. Meanwhile, her energetic social media campaign, featuring viral videos, irks the left by highlighting Anne Hidalgo's record.
Rachida Dati, the Culture Minister and Les Républicains (LR) candidate for Paris mayor, backed by MoDem, is gradually unveiling her program ahead of the municipal elections. Facing a Paris she describes as 'blocked, fractured, exhausted by an ideology that pits transport modes against each other,' she proposes a 'global mobility scheme.'
For the Seine quays, far from reinstating cars, Dati envisions transforming them into a 'grand urban patrimonial park.' She aims to replace 'temporary installations with more qualitative urban furniture respectful of Parisian aesthetics,' reserve the lower quays for pedestrians, redirect cyclists to the upper quays, and create a continuous promenade space extendable beyond Paris.
On Rue de Rivoli, she promises to 'rebalance transport modes' by widening sidewalks for pedestrians, securing a bidirectional cycle path, and restoring a bus lane.
Meanwhile, her high-energy social media campaign is drawing ire. Since October, Dati has been posting dynamic videos where she stages herself on the ground, criticizing Socialist Mayor Anne Hidalgo's record— in office since 2014—on cleanliness, security, mobility, and housing. In a December 12 video, she visits the Rungis wholesale market, helping workers load goods and delivering to restaurateurs to identify delivery obstacles.
'There are places where the left no longer goes. I go everywhere, every week,' she boasts in her clips, which garner hundreds of thousands of views. She tours poorly maintained social housing or tunnels occupied by the homeless, like under Les Halles. This approach irks the left, who decry it as staged theatrics.
