The case has already been dubbed the ‘Tahiti gate’. It is the latest political scandal in France, carried out by the mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo. At the center of the controversy: a trip of more than three weeks, official and private, for work and leisure, that began in New Caledonia with the official delegation, and ended on an island in French Polynesia, near Tahiti, vacation.

It occurred between October 16 and November 5. A delegation from the Mayor’s Office of Paris traveled to the area with the aim of visiting the Olympic infrastructure where the surfing tests will be held in the Olympic Games that the French capital will celebrate next summer. The displacement went unnoticed until the weekly Le Canard Enchaîné published some details of it.

Le Parisien further raised suspicions by revealing that Hidalgo dedicated the final part of the trip to visiting his daughter and taking advantage of a few days of rest and, however, he did not visit the aforementioned facilities. The mayor’s deputy in charge of the Olympic Games, Pierre Rabadan, who was in the delegation, has acknowledged to the French media that Hidalgo “took advantage of such a distant trip” to combine that professional trip with a visit to his daughter.

Several questions arise: who paid for the trip and whether the dates of the trip coincided with the week of school holidays in France. An anti-corruption association has filed a complaint with the Prosecutor’s Office to investigate whether the trip complies with the code of ethics and whether these vacations were paid for with public money.

The opposition, which judges that the socialist travels too much (she has made 13 trips so far this year), has questioned its legality. “You have decided to desert Paris for a whole month to go to Tahiti… It is shocking,” David Alphand, from the right-wing opposition, rebuked him in the council held on Wednesday. Rachida Dati, the main opposition leader, has demanded that he make public the detailed costs of the trip: Otherwise “it will be Justice that will do it.”

The Mayor’s Office has recognized that Hidalgo did not visit the Olympic infrastructure in Tahiti (which was the purpose of the trip), but that it was Rabadan who was in charge of it, being the deputy in charge of the sports area. He has justified that it was because the president of Polynesia himself advised against the visit, since an environmental demonstration was being held in the area that day.

This was postponed one day, but then Hidalgo was already flying to be with his family on the nearby island. Rabadan told the newspaper Le Monde that the visit to these facilities “was part of a 14-day trip”, and attending the appointment “would have forced him to change his ticket”, which he had already purchased. “As the mayor had a flight the next day, she asked me to represent her,” she indicated.

“The Mayor’s Office has not financed the mayor’s personal and private activities with public funds and has not suffered any prejudice,” said the deontology commission of the city of Paris. The costs of the delegation (Rabadan and Hidalgo were accompanied by two other people) amount to about 41,000 euros, plus accommodation, another 18,500.

The mayor’s entourage assured Le Parisien that the socialist paid for her own out of pocket. The members of the delegation also extended a few more days, but their return was the responsibility of the mayor’s office.

Hidalgo’s three-week trip also occurred after the Hamas attacks in Israel. It was not annulled. His agenda was not made public and some media see this omission as an attempt to make the displacement go unnoticed. Furthermore, the Minister of Sports, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, had been in the area a couple of months earlier.

This scandal threatens to further erode the image of Hidalgo, whose management is already being questioned and whose figure was greatly damaged after the electoral failure of the last presidential elections, in April 2022, when the socialist candidate barely managed to gather just 2% of votes. . Municipal elections will be held in 2026 and Parisians will have to decide if they want her at the head of the Mayor’s Office or prefer a change.