Anne Hidalgo Endorses Lamia El Aaraje for Paris By-Election in 20th Arrondissement

Lamia El Aaraje "is a woman of conviction who lives in the 20th and knows the real life of this beautiful district. [...] She is determined, she is strong, and we need women like her. That’s why I support her with determination but also with affection," declared the Mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, in a video. The candidate is campaigning with the support of the Socialist Party, République et Socialisme, and the Parti Radical de Gauche.

The priorities of the 34-year-old Franco-Moroccan woman are issues of equality and health. "My experience as an elected official in the district leads me to a first fight: real equality. Ensuring that all the children in the 20th benefit from the same opportunities regardless of their starting conditions in life. Education and training are their best chances to allow them to become the adults they wish to be," she said in an interview with Paris Lights Up.

She will add that this implies resources for education in working-class neighborhoods and more broadly, a strengthened quality of public and secular education, with an increase in class splitting (rather than closing classes in the 20th), and a revaluation of teachers and national education staff to sanctuarize their missions.

Another priority: health. "Another crucial priority for me is health. We must do everything to massively vaccinate against Covid-19 in order to get out of this crisis, by prioritizing teachers, early childhood professionals and social workers, and declaring the Covid-19 vaccine patent public. Behind this crisis and in the longer term, the issue of a public health service providing quality and local care for all is at stake. We must get out of the purely accounting logic in which it is inscribed, get out of the pricing per activity in the hospital, while doing everything to prevent diseases rather than cure them," advocates the candidate.