With a week to go before the first round of France's presidential election, Anne Hidalgo is languishing at under 2 percent in the polls. If those voter surveys bear out at the ballot box on April 10, the performance would mark a historic low for the embattled Socialist Party. And so a distinct sense of foreboding reigned as supporters gathered Sunday for Hidalgo's rally in Paris, where she remains mayor, with the party already poised for a post-election ideological reckoning.
The 19th-century Cirque d'Hiver, a circus venue in Paris's 11th arrondissement (district), is something of a good luck charm for Anne Hidalgo. It was here in 2014 that she wrapped up her first successful campaign for Paris City Hall. And so, as if to exorcise the hard luck of her beleaguered presidential bid and harken back to the good times, the Socialists chose to return to the covered colosseum on Sunday for her last presidential campaign rally with one more week to go.
