Paris's Mayor Anne Hidalgo, the Socialist candidate for the French presidency, has lamented an “ugly” campaign for the Elysée Palace dominated by mud-slinging and the revanchist, anti-immigrant rhetoric of the far right. She might just as well have been referring to the tribulations of her equally struggling left-wing rival Christiane Taubira, whose campaign team has accused the Socialists of attempting to push her out of the race.
Hidalgo, whose once mighty Socialist Party is battling for survival, is languishing at the back of a crowded field of candidates vying for the Elysée Palace. She suffered another blow this week when her party’s former presidential nominee Ségolène Royal said she would back another candidate, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, in the April presidential election.
