Battle lines drawn as Parisians poised to elect first female mayor in city’s history

The outcome of the conservative selection process that begins May 31 is all but decided – Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, or NKM as she is often known, is widely considered the only candidate with a realistic chance. Her Socialist opponent in the March 2014 election will be Anne Hidalgo, the current mayor’s designated heir.

The two have already begun to spar indirectly, notably over security and tourism in Paris, where riots erupted this month during a celebration to honour the French soccer club Paris Saint-Germain. But they have distinctly different visions of how Paris should serve its 2.3 million residents and the 29 million people who visit each year.

The race also includes other female candidates from smaller parties who are considered unlikely to win.

Ms Kosciusko-Morizet has called for stores in the city’s main tourist districts to open on Sundays, saying that Paris is losing tour groups to London on the weekends because of requirements that shops close for a day. She also wants to crack down on the pickpockets who swarm the subways and major attractions.

Ms Hidalgo counters that the French system works for its residents, saying that she does not want Paris – which virtually shuts down on Sundays and in the evenings – to “look like Anglo-Saxon cities working 24 hours a day”.

Ms Kosciusko-Morizet, 40, is an engineer with deep family roots in France’s political world – her grandfather was once ambassador to the United States and her father is mayor of a small town on the outskirts of the capital. She herself was mayor of the Paris suburb of Longjumeau until this year. She also led the wide-ranging Ministry of Ecology, Sustainable Development, Transport and Housing under former president Nicolas Sarkozy.

Ms Hidalgo, 53, deputy to Mayor Bertrand Delanoe, who is retiring after 12 years in office, rarely appears on television or comments in newspapers.