European Women Mayors News

Women Mayors from Europe

> Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo will not run for third term

> Some 80,000 Parisians marched to protest against sexual violence

> Amsterdam Mayor regrets using the term 'pogrom'

> Belgium elects more female councillors than ever before

Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo and her preferred successor Rémi Féraud

FRANCE

Paris Mayor Hidalgo says she will not run for a third term and names her preferred successor

November 2024: Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo has announced that she will not be a mayoral candidate in 2026. At the same time, she also named her preferred successor. Hidalgo, a socialist and the French capital’s first female mayor, was first elected in 2014 and re-elected in 2020 for a second six-year term.

Ever since Anne Hidalgo ran for the office of French president in 2022, there has been speculation as to the mayor’s plans after her second term in office. After receiving less than two per cent of the vote in the presidential election, there is little likelihood that she will run again. Many believe that she would like to enter the European Parliament for the Socialist Party. Internationally, especially in the capital cities of Europe, she is well respected. She has often liaised with her European colleagues, and many of her achievements have been admired and copied. She is also thought to be close to the female mayors of Washington DC and Los Angeles.

Anne Hidalgo’s greatest success was probably the successful organisation of this year's Olympic Games. Contrary to many pessimistic predictions, the Paris Metro system coped with the rush of visitors quite smoothly. And the security precautions ensured that everything went peacefully.

But the Mayor is best known for her many measures to ban cars from the centre of Paris. In 2016, she got rid of a dual carriageway running along the River Seine to turn it into a leafy pedestrian zone. Her administration also created a network of bike lanes and, after a referendum, trebled parking fees for SUVs and banned rental e-scooters.

But Mayor Hidalgo also has her critics. She is accused of merely shifting traffic and causing even heavier concentrations of cars elsewhere while also allowing security, cleanliness and public transport to deteriorate. In her interview with Le Monde, the Mayor insisted there had been a clear improvement in security while acknowledging the city still had some extremely tough areas.

In Le Monde, the Mayor expressed her hope that Senator Rémi Féraud would succeed her. “I know him well and have liked him for a very long time; he is the person who will be able to carry on our history and reinvent a future for Paris. He has the necessary solidity, seriousness and ability to bring people together. We have fought so many battles together, he as mayor of the 10th arrondissement and I as Mayor of Paris,” Anne Hidalgo told the newspaper.

In 2026, the Socialists are likely to face challenges from some formidable opponents. France’s right-wing culture minister and an outspoken critic of Mayor Hidalgo is thought to be contemplating running for Mayor. Former deputy mayor Emmanuel Gregoire, who has icy relations with Hidalgo despite sharing the same political family, has also expressed his intention to stand. In a crowded field, another name being mentioned is President Macron’s former prime minister, Gabriel Attal, while the Communist senator Ian Brossat has also expressed an interest.

France 24 reports that the right of French politics will be eager to win back the Paris Hôtel de Ville (city hall), which since 2001 has been in the hands of the Socialists.

On other pages: French women mayors

FRANCE

French protests against violence against women coincide with Dominique Pelicot trial

November 2024: Two days before the 2024 International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women (25 November), tens of thousands of people took to the streets across France to protest against sexual violence. In the French capital, Paris, large crowds of women and men marched waving purple placards that denounced gender-based violence and defended women’s reproductive rights.

This year’s International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women falls on the same day as the trial of the dozens of men who are accused of raping Gisèle Pelicot while she was drugged by her husband without her knowledge, the prosecution will start delivering its closing arguments.

Demonstrators voiced concerns about a possible rollback on women’s rights in the United States when President-elect Donald Trump returns to the White House in January. Vice President-elect JD Vance said he would like a national abortion ban in a podcast interview in 2022 but has since emphasised that individual states should determine their policies.

The French newspaper Le Monde reported that roughly 80,000 protesters took to the streets in Paris, with 400 different organisations participating in demonstrations. The publication also wrote that thousands of people took to the streets in smaller cities across the nation.

France enshrined abortion rights in the constitution in March — a move largely seen as a response to the US move to roll back key reproductive rights protections in 2022 when the Supreme Court overturned decades-old laws protecting abortion rights nationally. While abortion has been legal since 1975 in France, the constitutional change explicitly guaranteed abortion access. France was the first country in the world to do so.

Protesters also voiced solidarity with Gisele Pelicot, whose ex-husband Dominique Pelicot and 50 other co-defendants are on trial in Avignon over allegations that the men drugged and raped her. In September, Pelicot accepted the charges.

This year’s International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women falls on the same day, as the prosecution asked that Dominique Pelicot be given the maximum sentence of 20 years in prison for drugging and raping his then-wife and recruiting others to rape her.

The case has shocked France, which, like other countries, has seen a series of sexual abuse cases, and a prosecutor told the court that the trial needed to herald a fundamental change in relations between men and women.

“Unfortunately, anybody can be a perpetrator of violence. It can be our brothers. It can be our fathers. It can be our colleagues. It can be our bosses. I think that’s the big shock for people,” said Maelle Noir, representing the feminist collective Nous Toutes, which translates as All of Us, told The Associated Press news agency at the Paris protest.

NETHERLANDS

Amsterdam Mayor regrets using the term ‘pogrom’ in connection with football violence

November 2024: Amsterdam’s female Mayor Femke Halsema said she spoke too hastily when she described the violent events that followed a UEFA Europa League football match between Dutch side Ajax and the Israeli team Maccabi Tel Aviv as a ‘pogrom’.

Speaking at a press conference on the day following the match (see below), the Amsterdam Mayor said, "Boys on scooters crisscrossed the city in search of Israeli football fans, it was a hit and run. I understand very well that this brings back the memory of pogroms.” But Halsema now regrets her use of the term, claiming it had been manipulated to serve political agendas both nationally and internationally.

"I must say that in the following days, I saw how the word pogrom became very political and became propaganda. The Israeli government is talking about a Palestinian pogrom in the streets of Amsterdam. In The Hague, the word pogrom is mainly used to discriminate against Moroccan Amsterdammers Muslims. I didn't mean it that way. And I didn't want it that way," Halsema told Dutch state media on Sunday (19 November).

Mayor Femke also criticised the Israeli government for its swift portrayal of the incident as an attack on Israelis, despite prior behaviour by Maccabi supporters in which they chanted anti-Arab slogans and tore down Palestinian flags. "We were completely caught off guard by Israel. At 3 am (8 November), Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was already giving a lecture about what happened in Amsterdam while we were still gathering the facts," the Mayor said in Sunday's interview.

The violence and its aftermath caused a government crisis after the far-right political leader Geert Wilders blamed Dutch youths of Moroccan ancestry for hunting Jews. “Those convicted of involvement should be deported if they have dual nationality,” he said. Morocco-born Nora Achahbar of the centrist New Social Contract party, which is part of the country’s coalition, resigned from the government. "The polarising manners have had such an impact on me that I could, or would, no longer fulfil my role as state finance secretary. Polarisation in society is dangerous because it undermines the bond between people. Because of that, we start seeing each other as opponents instead of fellow citizens," she said in a statement.

In Israel, the country’s foreign minister, Gideon Sa’ar, condemned the Amsterdam Mayor for her retraction. “The statement made by the Mayor is utterly unacceptable,” the Minister wrote on X/Twitter. “The failure that occurred on that night must not be compounded by a further grave failure: a cover-up.”

On other pages: Dutch women mayors

NETHERLANDS

Amsterdam Mayor condemns football rioting as anti-semitic crime

November 2024: Amsterdam’s Mayor Femke Halsema spoke of her shame of the attacks on Israeli football fans on Thursday (7 November 2024). She said criminals on motor scooters had crisscrossed the city in search of Maccabi supporters in hit-and-run attacks. “This is a terrible moment for Amsterdam. I am very ashamed of the behaviour that was shown Thursday night,” she said in a news conference.

Mayor Halsema added that Amsterdam is used to protests and demonstrations, particularly concerning the situation in the Middle East and the ongoing war. “But what happened last night wasn’t a protest. It was anti-Semitic criminal behaviour.”

Mayor Halsema admitted that police had been taken by surprise after security services failed to flag the match between Maccabi Tel Aviv and Ajax Amsterdam as high-risk. “Antisemitic hit-and-run squads had managed to evade a force of around 200 officers, she said.

In the press conference, the Mayor announced a number of security measures in the wake of the unrest. A ban on demonstrations in the city was implemented on Friday and will be in place for three days until Sunday, according to Halsema. There will also be a bolstered police presence. The mayor also announced a ban on face-covering clothing and carrying objects that could lead to disturbances of public order.

Dutch police said 62 suspects had been detained after the game as pro-Palestinian demonstrators tried to reach the Johan Cruyff Arena, even though the city had forbidden a protest there. Ten remained in custody on Friday. A spokesman said fans had left the stadium without incident after the Europa League match, which Ajax won 5-0, but that clashes erupted overnight in the city centre.

Amsterdam authorities said Friday morning that five injured Israeli soccer fans have since been released from the hospital, and 20 to 30 other people were lightly injured. In total, 63 individuals were arrested, and ten remain in custody, police said.

There have also been reports of anti-Arab behaviour by Maccabi fans. One video, which has been verified by Reuters, shows Maccabi fans setting off flares and chanting, ‘Ole, ole, let the IDF (Israeli Defence Force) win, we will fuck the Arabs.’ Palestinian flags were also torn down.

On other pages: Dutch women mayors

BELGIUM

Belgium elects more women councillors than ever before

October 2024: At Belgium’s local elections on 13 October 2024, women have increased their representation on a large number of local councils. Across the Brussels-Capital region, they have now almost reached parity with men. Women have always been strongly represented in the municipal parliaments of the Brussels region. Since 2018, their share has continued to increase and has now reached 49.2 per cent.

According to a study by Belgian broadcaster RTBF (Radio-télévision belge de la Communauté française), 356 men and 345 women were elected to the 19 municipal councils that make up the Brussels-Capital region. However, the broadcaster also found that there are major differences between individual municipalities. In Molenbeek-Saint-Jean, for example, less than a third of elected councillors are women (31%), while in Ixelles, Saint-Gilles and Auderghem, the figure is around two-thirds. (Respectively, 62%, 63% and 70% of elected officials are women).

The increase in women was also strong in the French-speaking region of Wallonia. There, the proportion of female municipal councillors has increased by almost four percentage points since the last election six years ago. It has now reached almost 45 per cent.

In Flanders, the Dutch-speaking part of the country, the proportion of women has risen by around three percentage points. The Flemish authorities noted that the rise in women elected was encouraging, as the share of women elected to municipal councils increased from 38 per cent to 42 per cent, and the proportion of women elected to provincial councils rose from 42 per cent to almost 49 per cent.

The RTBF study found that in Wallonia, there was a disparity between political parties in terms of how many women were elected. In the Green Party (Ecolo), some 71 per cent of elected councillors were women, while in the Socialist Party (PS), the share of women among newly elected councillors was just 40 per cent. The shares of female councillors from Les Engagés (centre-right) and the liberal Reformist Movement were 46 and 48 per cent, respectively.

More than two decades ago, Belgium introduced a law requiring an equal number of men and women on all election lists. In Wallonia and Brussels, lists are also required to alternate between male and female candidates.

ON OTHER PAGES: Women must play a stronger role in European local and regional government |

ITALY

Italian mayor resents the very people who contribute to her town’s prosperity

September 2024: In November of last year (2023), Fincantieri, Europe’s largest shipbuilder, launched one of the world’s most advanced cruise ships in Monfalcone, near Trieste. Built for the Hamburg-based cruise line TUI Cruises, the ship was designed by the Italian shipbuilder to set new standards in maritime sustainability. The launch occurred in front of dignitaries from across Italy, Europe and beyond and representatives from Fincantieri’s 8,500-strong Monfalcone workforce.

The company is rightly proud of its workforce which is made up of 1,700 Italians and 6,800 skilled foreign labourers. The majority of the foreign employees come from Bangladesh, a country with a tradition of shipbuilding. While Fincantieri, the labour unions and local businesses agree that the shipyard would struggle to operate without foreign manpower, their presence is resented by Monfalcone’s far-right mayor Anna Maria Cisint*. Her objection to the Bangladeshis is that they practise Muslim religion, bring their families to Italy and, lately, play cricket, a sport which she argues is not Italian.

Mayor Cisint, who was re-elected two years ago, has in the past complained about women wearing burkinis, worshippers praying too loudly and the smell of Bangladeshi cooking. “These people want to bring Bangladesh to Monfalcone,” the Mayor said.

The tension between the Mayor and the town’s Muslim residents came to a head last year, incidentally around the time the town’s largest employer launched its latest ship when the city banned prayers at the local Islamic centre, where migrant workers and their families have gathered and worshipped peacefully for two decades.

Anna Maria Cisint has been accused of using the Bangladeshi community for political purposes to please her right-wing friends in Rome. (The Mayor’s re-election was supported by Italy’s two far-right parties, the Brothers of Italy and the League.)

According to London’s Financial Times, Mayor Cisint claimed that Muslim workers in Italy are practising “the most fundamentalist Islam” and pose “an enormous danger for our cities, territories, culture and freedom”. The newspaper also spoke to Monfalcone residents from Bangladesh and North Africa who believe they are under attack. “It is a basic right to worship and teach our children the tenets of our faith.”

Mayor Cisint, who in June was elected to the European Parliament, has now banned children from playing cricket within the town’s boundaries. The Mayor believes cricket harms “the essence of Italy’s culture”. In a recent interview, she told a journalist from the BBC that it was her duty to defend Christian values in her town. “Our history is being erased. It’s like it doesn’t matter anymore. Everything is changing for the worse,” the Mayor said.

In a Facebook video, Anna Maria Cisint insists that cricket was not the only ball game banned from the town. According to her, the cricket story was fake. “Football and basketball have been banned from built-up areas for some time, with cricket recently being added to the list due to its rising popularity.”

The Mayor claims that the thousands of workers who help to build some of Europe’s most advanced ships have given “zero” to Monfalcone. “They are free to go and play cricket anywhere else, outside of Monfalcone.”

The president of Monfalcone’s small business community countered “Monfalcone would be a ghost town if there were no foreigners.”

* Since being elected to the European Parliament, Cisint’s mayoral duties at the Comune di Monfalcone have been performed by Deputy Mayor (Vicesindaco Reggente) Garritani Antonio.

GERMANY

Women protected by women

September 2024: Last Friday (30 August 2024), there was a knife attack on a bus in Siegen in western Germany (North Rhine-Westphalia). A 32-year-old woman stabbed several passengers before being overwhelmed by two other female passengers. Shortly after the crime became public, rumours began circulating on social media that the perpetrator was a Muslim woman. As is now all too common, the authors of the posts used xenophobic and often racist language and made no effort to check the facts.

The proliferation and influence of false, often deliberately false, social media posts is so great that traditional media are forced to report not just the facts but add background information about the people involved. So instead of a headline that a few years ago would have read ‘Knife attacker overwhelmed by women’, newspapers now wrote ‘Muslim mothers stopped German knife attacker’.

Even the town’s mayor felt compelled to inform the press that the stabber was a German with no immigration background, while the helpers were Muslims. “The perpetrator was a German woman and the heroes of this story were two young women with an immigrant background,” said Mayor Steffen Muess. According to the Mayor, the two women had pounced on the perpetrator and held her down, thus preventing worse things from happening. “We have to make sure that we rely on facts again, on honest answers, on well-intentioned answers, on good answers, on the right answers,” appealed the mayor.

According to the local newspaper Siegener Zeitung, the two women overwhelmed the perpetrator and wrestled the knife from her. “These women probably saved people's lives,” the newspaper wrote.

FRANCE

Saint-Tropez Mayor appeals to tourists to stay away in the summer

August 2024: Saint-Tropez, once an idyllic fishing village on the Côte d'Azur, is now struggling with the consequences of mass tourism. In the summer months of July and August, over 80,000 visitors a day flock to the town, which has a population of just 4,000.

In an interview with British broadcaster BBC, Mayor Sylvie Siri said enough was enough and appealed to tourists not to come in the summer. In the spring and autumn, the town’s original charm can be much better appreciated and visitors will find focal residents less irritable and more welcoming.

Mayor Siri outlined her plans to make Saint-Tropez a year-round destination. “We do not want to appeal just to those who enjoy a lively, sometimes rowdy, beach culture but also to travellers who prefer to experience the town as it once was, or at least near enough.” Nostalgically she talked of fishing boats that deliver their catch daily, wisteria and lilac that fill the narrow street with the scents of spring and uncrowded beaches that are perfect for strolls.

Saint-Tropez is not the town of 1958 when Brigit Bardot bought a house on its beachfront and hosted parties for film stars like Sacha Distel, Jean-Paul Belmondo and Alain Delon (who died in August 2024). Gunter Sachs, her German husband from 1966 to 1969, poured a shower of rose petals from a helicopter over the garden of the house as a testimony of his love for the French film star.

During the following decades, bohemian artists and filmmakers of the French New Wave were replaced by the rich and famous and their hangers-on. In the summer months, yachts and power boats now vastly outnumber traditional fishing boats.

Saint-Tropez is not the only popular French destination that suffers from over tourism. Colmar a town of 70,000 in Alsace, is visited by more than 3.5 million travellers a year, while the Abbey of Mont Saint-Michel (Normandy) attracts 1.3 million visitors a year. The Chateau of Versailles, in a town of 87,000 residents, is visited by 6.7 million people every year.

BRITAIN

Women mayors join condemnation of far-right riots sweeping across England

August 2024: Towns and cities across England have been targeted by racist, anti-immigrant violence perpetrated by far-right mobs of thugs. Groups of mostly white men, often masked, attacked hotels housing asylum seekers, mosques and even police stations while chanting racist slogans. Swastikas and Nazi salutes have been on display among the far-right rioters who left a trail of destruction in English communities over the weekend (4/5 August 2024).

The violent disturbances started after a mass stabbing in Southport, a seaside resort north of Liverpool. Three young girls were killed in the attack with eight other children and two adults seriously injured at a dance class in a residential street of the town. In the aftermath of the attack, misinformation spread online claiming the perpetrator had been a Muslim migrant when in fact the individual arrested was a teenager born in Cardiff, Wales. Far-right, so-called social media influencers used the stabbing to stir up hatred against Muslims, immigrants and people of colour in general.

The first riot took place in Southport on 30 July after a peaceful vigil for the stabbing victims was taken over by far-right activists, many from outside the town, who went on to attack a nearby mosque. During the attack, more than 50 police officers were injured. In the following days, the violent protests spread across England. While most of the violence took place in north-east and north-west England there were also disturbances in Aldershot, a garrison town in southern England and even in London. The British capital witnessed the biggest far-right rally in years.

Politicians from all main parties swiftly and unequivocally condemned the racist thuggery. However, members of right-wing political groups have accused the police of treating nationalist and white protesters more harshly on the streets than they do, for example, pro-Palestine demonstrators. Britain’s newly elected Labour government has announced the establishment of a national policing unit to tackle violent disorder. According to police reports, some 400 arrests have already been made.

Some of the most appalling riots took place in Sunderland on Friday and Saturday (2/3 August) when some 500 people, including women and children, assembled in the city centre to demonstrate. The gathering quickly descended into violence when masked teenagers and men started to throw missiles, including bricks, stones, beer barrels and scaffolding poles, at riot police. According to local media, a police station was ransacked and a neighbouring Citizens’ Advice Bureau was set alight. Cars were set on fire, shops looted and people attacked.

Kim McGuinness, the region’s mayor, reacted with shock and disgust to the far-right riots in Sunderland but emphasised that the violence did not represent the city, the region and, indeed, the people. “They will not define our reputation,” the mayor said. “They will not define our place in the world.”

Mayor McGuinness added the people of Sunderland were warm, friendly, hard-working and, most of all, proud. “That is the reputation of this great place. This is a city of compassion and community, culture and creativity.” (In Britain’s June 2024 general election, the right-wing Reform UK party came second to Labour but well ahead of the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats.)

Kim McGuiness won the immediate backing from a fellow English woman mayor. Doncaster Mayor Ros Jones said in a statement: “I utterly condemn the violence, antisocial behaviour and criminality we have seen over the past week in communities across the country.” In Rotherham, some 22 kilometres south-west of Doncaster, rioters attack a hotel housing 250 asylum seekers, including women and children. The thugs managed to break through the police cordon and enter the premises. A police spokesman said the rioters attempted to set the building on fire to cause serious harm and death to those inside.

According to The Guardian newspaper, the hotel was not a stranger to protests. “It is contentious locally and had become the scene of anti-immigration outrage in the past – though there were few who anticipated what a terrifying turn Sunday (4 August) would take. (In Rotherham the right-wing Reform UK party won 30% of the vote, well ahead of the third-placed Liberal Democrats on 7.6%. Labour won the seat with 45%)

Britain’s Jews also voiced disgust at the display of Nazi symbols and salutes. The Jewish Board of Deputies condemned the riot outside the Southport mosque in a statement. It said it “unreservedly condemns the attack on the Southport Mosque, the targeting of its Muslim worshippers, and the harming of police officers. There can be no place for this kind of violence or agitation aimed at inciting communal tension.”