The left-wing mayor of Paris is under fire amid allegations that she claimed more than £10,500 for designer dresses after trying to hide her expenses.
Furious critics said Anne Hidalgo, 66, who has been in the position since 2014, was abusing taxpayers’ money after details of her luxury spending over several years in office were revealed.
The 66-year-old mayor is claimed to have spent £5,500 for a pair of Dior dresses last year, £2,700 for a Burberry coat in 2023, and £977 for a Dior blouse in 2021.
Some £73,400 was spent on both clothing and travel expenses according to receipts obtained under a Freedom of Information request by Civic Transparency, an anti-corruption campaign group, after the Spanish-born mayor refused to be transparent with her expense claims.
Hidalgo defended the behaviour by arguing that the purchases were legitimate considering her role, which requires frequent travelling and for her to represent Paris at official engagements.
This was the third time since 2014 that the mayor refused to reveal her travel, culinary, and entertainment expenses, according to Mediapart.
The revelations come only after a lengthy legal wrangle between Hidalgo and the anti-corruption association, which unveiled a series of Hidalgo’s alleged receipts in a dramatic sequence of posts on X.
Hidalgo participates in ‘numerous official functions throughout the year,’ her office said amid backlash from opposition parties. ‘She receives heads of state and foreign delegations.’
Furious critics said Anne Hidalgo, 66, who has been in the position since 2014, was abusing taxpayers’ money
Her fashion purchases also included items from less luxury brands bought in shops around the city hall.
But some of the expenses were claimed for luxury items and trips that were at least partly made for personal reasons, her critics claimed.
Paul Hatte, the vice-president of the council’s centre-right opposition, said: ‘No business people have the right to claim their outfits as a professional expense.’
‘We have been paying for years for the luxury in which the mayor indulges. This is no longer a Republic. It’s a principality,’ he added on X.
This is not the first time the mayor, who was the Socialist party candidate in the 2022 presidential elections, has come under fire for her use of public funds for private expenses.
Another anti-corruption group laid a criminal complaint against Hidalgo last year after she was accused of misusing taxpayers’ money, leading to her offices being raided by the police.
Prosecutors confirmed this week that the inquiry was still ongoing.
She was also accused in late 2023 of spending £52,000 to go to Tahiti for a work trip, which she then prolonged for a two-week holiday.
The mayor received yet more criticism when she posted photos of herself on social media riding her bicycle by the Seine, giving the impression that she was in the capital when in fact she was in the French Polynesia.
Culture minister Rachida Dati, the conservative council opposition leader, has historically accused the mayor of ‘sleaze’, claiming that an investigation ought to be called.
But Dati is in the grips of her own scandal. French anti-corruption prosecutors are in the midst of an investigation into allegations that she failed to be transparent about more than £349,000 in jewelry and watches in a declaration of assets that all cabinet members are required to submit.
Dati, who is polling as a front-runner to replace Hidalgo as mayor next year, allegedly received the expensive jewelry as presents from her ex-boyfriend, Henri Proglio, a former chief of the EDF energy group.
