Nasty Paris mayoral race digs at capital's dirty underbelly

PARIS (AP) — The battle to win the hearts of Parisians and preside over France's capital from the opulent city hall, has been nasty, and unpredictable.

Parisians have been dished up a sex video scandal that triggered the surprise withdrawal of the candidate for President Emmanuel Macron's party, a last-minute replacement and mud-slinging about the filth of Paris streets, bedbugs and rats. As Sunday’s first round of municipal elections approaches, voters have been left to contemplate the underbelly of the City of Light.

Three women top polls, including incumbent Mayor Anne Hidalgo, a Socialist best known for her divisive effort to rid Paris of cars. She wants to create “mini-forests” with 170,000 newly-planted trees and make the city center fully bicycle-friendly.

Trees, plenty of them, from urban forests to planted promenades, made a late appearance on the agendas of most of the eight candidates in the Paris race of France’s municipal elections.

The nationwide voting is about local issues and centers on choosing the mayor, traditionally the most liked political figure among French. But local elections can help lay the groundwork for presidential voting in two years, so the stakes are high, and Paris — where the next mayor will host the 2024 Olympics — is the crown jewel.

Macron risks a huge humiliation. His centrist party, The Republic on the Move, which he created from scratch before his 2017 election, lacks local power bases, meaning it is likely to fare poorly.

Seized during the French Revolution, set afire in a brutal 1871 repression, Paris City Hall, drenched in 338 statues and grander than the presidential Elysee Palace, is indeed a plum. Protocol demands that visiting heads of state visit the Paris mayor.

Rachida Dati, a conservative justice...