Paris Mayor Hidalgo Defends French Muslims, Denounces Far-Right Rhetoric

"I will not let our Muslim compatriots be designated as the scapegoats of the French crisis," said Anne Hidalgo, reaffirming her opposition to the far right. "No, this France that is retreating is not ours. No, this nation steeped in an aggressive nostalgia is not ours. No, this France with a falsified past is not ours," she added.

The 2021 presidential candidate attacked the far-right political figures, including the candidate Eric Zemmour, who recently called on Muslims "to assimilate and renounce the practice of Islam which consists in imposing a legal and political code." "This language of the 1930s, which reviled the foreigner, and exalted the hatred of the Jews" is now "applied to Muslims," she deplored.

Anne Hidalgo also stated that she is the candidate for the reconciliation of France with itself, and for the appeasement of a divided France, and made a call for unity.