Anne Hidalgo, the outgoing mayor of Paris, has lost her bid for an international top job at the UN.
She was in a high-profile bid to become the next United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), a role overseeing aid for over 122 million displaced people worldwide.
The announcement came today from UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who selected former Iraqi President Barham Salih as his preferred candidate, a choice now awaiting formal ratification by the UN General Assembly in early 2026.
Hidalgo’s defeat caps a turbulent year for the 66-year-old Spanish-born politician, whose international ambitions were overshadowed by a domestic controversy centred on revelations that she claimed nearly €84,000 in taxpayer-funded expenses on luxury clothing between 2020 and 2024.
Cleanliness of the city, security, escalating debt and mobility in Paris under her tenure were also points of criticism.
Hidalgo, who has served as mayor since 2014 and opted not to seek a third term in the 2026 municipal elections, launched her UNHCR campaign earlier this year as Filippo Grandi, the Italian diplomat in the post since 2016, prepared to step down on December 31.
Backed by French President Emmanuel Macron in an apparent political horse trading deal, she positioned herself as a champion of migrant rights, drawing on her experience hosting over 25,000 refugees in Paris during her tenure and her vocal advocacy on climate-driven displacement.
She was reportedly prepared to leave City Hall early for the job.
From April onwards, Hidalgo ramped up global outreach: A spring meeting with Guterres in New York; attendance at the UN-Habitat Assembly in Kenya in May and a June visit to Lausanne for the Olympic Refugee Foundation’s annual gathering.
By October, she was among eight contenders, including a Ghanaian UNHCR staffer, a Swiss migration expert, and Sweden’s surprise nominee – outgoing IKEA CEO Jesper Brodin, pitched for his fundraising prowess amid the agency’s funding crisis.
Yet her candidacy faced immediate scepticism in Geneva, UNHCR’s headquarters, where insiders dismissed her as lacking the requisite expertise in international refugee law, asylum procedures, and conflict zones – criteria emphasised in a September petition by over 3,000 signatories urging member states to reject her.
Critics, including right-wing French politicians and international NGOs, argued her record in Paris proved she was ill-equipped her for leading a $10 billion UN operation grappling with a 20 per cent budget cut and backlash against asylum systems and international NGOs.
One UNHCR source told Le Figaro that Hidalgo “was never considered a candidate at the required level,” despite her regularly appearing in media rankings of the “most influential” women in the world.
The bid’s collapse coincides with Hidalgo’s handover of Paris City Hall to Emmanuel Grégoire, her former deputy, after her preferred successor, Senator Rémi Féraud, lost a Socialist primary in June.
The United Nations increasingly resembles a gilded retirement home for Europe’s failed politicians.
Belgium’s Alexander De Croo was named as new Administrator of United Nations Development Programme, a high ranking post, after being soundly ejected by voters in June 2024.
Germany’s Annalena Baerbock, whose Green party was humiliated in the February 2025 federal elections, became president of the United Nations General Assembly.
(brussels signal)
