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In a race that is expected to come down to a few thousand votes, every last one counts – including, for the candidates seeking to become the next mayor of Paris, those of the French capital’s disgruntled dog owners.
Both favourites in Sunday’s second-round vote, the leftwing frontrunner Emmanuel Grégoire and the former conservative culture minister, Rachida Dati, have promised an array of canine-friendly measures if they win – and for good reason.
In the last city council elections, in 2020, about 57,000 votes separated the winner, outgoing Socialist mayor Anne Hidalgo, from her closest rival, Dati. This year’s race is expected to be tighter still and Paris has more than 100,000 dogs.
“That’s, what, something like 170,000 votes,” said Loïc Amiot of Paris Condition Canine, an umbrella group of 10 dog-owners’ associations in the capital that has published a manifesto demanding better treatment for the city’s dogs.
“Today, bans are the rule and permissions the exception. We aim to reverse that,” Amiot said, noting that of about 550 parks and open spaces in Paris, just 165 allow dogs on leads and the city has only 43 enclosed spaces where dogs can run free.
Sniffing an electoral opportunity, Grégoire has deployed an entire Instagram account dedicated to dogs, HotdogswithEmmanuelGrégoire, showing assorted pooches busily “charming the future mayor of Paris into opening more dog runs”.
Not to be outdone, Dati, who is running again, has cuddled canines in multiple social media posts, saying they had “not found their rightful place in the city” and she would “expand access everywhere, on and off the lead, in dedicated runs … All over.” Several other candidates have also promised dog-friendly policies.
The race for Paris city hall, held by the Socialist party since 2001, looks too close to call. Grégoire, a former deputy mayor, won the first round comfortably with 38%, followed by Dati on 25.5%. The radical left’s Sophia Chikirou was third on 11.7%.
The two other second round qualifiers, the centrist candidate Pierre-Yves Bournazel (11.3%) and the far right’s Sarah Knafo (10.4%), both pulled out after last Sunday’s first round, the former merging his list with Dati’s and the latter urging her voters to “defeat the left” by backing the conservative.
All this means that, to hold city hall, Grégoire’s left-green alliance may need to count on centrist Bournazel voters who are reluctant to cast their ballot for Dati and Chikirou voters worried a vote for the radical left could hand victory to the right.
Paris is one of the world’s most densely dog-populated cities, with an estimated 2,857 canines for every square kilometre. Dati, the mayor of the 7th arrondissement, has hosted “doggy drinks” and wants “shared spaces” so people “can bring their pets along freely, without bother or judgment”.
Grégoire has also promised more outdoor spaces and subsidised vet visits, plus – like Chikirou – to allow dogs on all public transport. Dogs may travel on the Métro if they are muzzled or in a basket, but only assistance dogs are permitted on buses or trams.
Bournazel, likewise, had committed to more dog runs, especially along the Seine, while Knafo offered dog-friendly taxis. “Dogs are our friends, not a detail of urban planning,” Bournazel said. “They live in our city and we all live together.”
Dogs have long played a role in France’s politics, with every president since Charles de Gaulle owning at least one, although the leader of the far-right National Rally, Marine Le Pen, famously prefers cats, and earned a cat breeding diploma in 2021.
An Ifop poll in February showed 58% of voters saw animal welfare as a priority. But walking her jack russell terrier by the Square d’Anvers in the 9th arrondissement, where a “caniparc” or dog run will open soon, Hélène Rix was unconvinced.
“Paris is really not a great city for dogs, far from it,” she said. “I’ve been fined in parks three or four times. But look, this is politicians looking for votes. And am I going to vote based on a policy towards dogs, given everything else? I don’t think so.”
