Bertrand Delanoe

[Anne]

The town councils elections will be held in Spring 2008, and Bertrand Delanoe has begun his campain for reelection as Paris mayor yesterday . I don't know much about the guy but he seems decent enough to me and I think that he is quite popular among Parisians .

[Truffaut]

Delanoe is, indeed, very popular among a large segment of Parisians. His policies are quite liberal and very populist. He has promoted an enormous increase in "green space", park-planning, pedestrian-only areas, Vélib, Paris Plage, etc. Most of these efforts are appreciated by many residents, but some have been very hard on small businesses--especially the severe restriction of parking in neighborhoods. In Batignolles, I personally know of a handful of restaurants that have closed because their patrons could no longer find parking and stopped coming for dinner. And of course, he is one of Europe's leading gay elected officials (along with Klaus Wowereit, mayor of Berlin).

His openent will be Françoise de Panafieu, who is currently mayor of the 17th Arr. She is quite stuffy and conservative. She's fairly popular in the 17th (especially in the western parts) because she's presided over a striking run-up in property values and has been helpful in attracting investment in the area.

[phread]

He is a favorite with the greens and cyclists, which means he gets my vote. Somebody must hate him, because there has been an assasination attempt on his life.
By the way, toutou, who takes over if the President dies while in office? My daughter was wondering, and thought the best solution would be to ask his son Louis. Imagine the playground conversation, "Hey Louis, who gets your Dad's job if somebody guns him down?"