Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo speaks after receiving the Green Diplomat of the Year Award during the fifth annual Diplomat of the Year Awards Dinner hosted by Foreign Policy November 17, 2016 at the W Hotel in Washington, DC. (AFP/Zach Gibson)
US President-elect Donald Trump and France’s far-right leader Marine Le Pen are part of “identical phenomena” that have swept the two countries, the mayor of Paris said Friday.
Mayor Anne Hidalgo, who was in Washington accepting an environmental award from Foreign Policy magazine, added that Trump “is bad news, because we don’t need to restart discussions of last century” — a reference to his skepticism of climate change.
Le Pen, the leader of France’s far-right National Front (FN), has her eye on the French presidency in next year’s elections, with polls currently showing her making it past the first round to the May run-off among the top two vote-getters.
“The fact that (Le Pen) is already so high in the polls, it’s because there are identical phenomena at work,” Hidalgo told a handful of journalists.
President of the French far-right party and presidential candidate for the 2017 French Presidential elections Marine Le Pen delivers a speech during a press conference, in the party headquarters inNanterre, near Paris, November 9, 2016. (AFP/Martin BUREAU)
She said the presidency of Trump, who has described climate change as a “hoax,” would not have a decisive impact on the landmark Paris agreement on climate change.
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“Even if Mr Trump declares his skepticism every morning… it will not stop the momentum,” she said, adding that “countries cannot leave the agreement anyhow.”
Trump has threatened to “cancel” the pact, which could roll back years of painstakingly negotiated political goodwill.
President-elect Donald Trump addresses the American people in his victory speech early Wednesday, November 9, 2016 (screen capture: YouTube)
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