Paris City Government Overview

MAYOR

Bertrand Delanoë (born 30 May 1950; is a French politician, and has been the mayor of Paris since 2001. A member of the Socialist Party (PS), he is considered to be a potential candidate for President of the French Republic in 2012.
Delanoë was born in Tunis, Tunisia to a French-Tunisian father and a French mother. He moved to France with his family in his teens.

Bertrand Delanoë was born 30 May 1950 in Tunis, to an atheist father (a land surveyor) and a Roman Catholic mother (a nurse). At 6 years old, Delanoë became a member of the "Petits Chanteurs des Sables", a choral group associated with the Petits Chanteurs à la Croix de Bois.
At the age of 11, Delanoë witnessed the Battle of Bizerte between France and newly independent Tunisia.

After the military base was closed in 1963, Delanoë's family broke up. His mother came to live in Rodez (Aveyron), with her son. After leaving school, Delanoë is said to have started studies in law at the University of Toulouse. According to Who's Who in France he possesses a diploma in economics.

CITY COUNCIL

Paris is the capital and largest city in France. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region (or Paris Region, French: Région parisienne). The city of Paris, within its administrative limits largely unchanged since 1860, has an estimated population of 2,193,031 (January 2007), but the Paris metropolitan area has a population of 11,836,970 (January 2007), and is one of the most populated metropolitan areas in Europe.

In 2009 and 2010. Paris has been ranked among the three most important and influential cities in the world, among the first three "European cities of the future" - according to a research published by Financial Times and among the ten cities in the world "where to live in" according to the British review Monocle (June 2010). An important settlement for more than two millennia, Paris is today one of the world's leading business and cultural centres, and its influences in politics, education, entertainment, media, fashion, science, and the arts all contribute to its status as one of the world's major global cities. Paris also ranks among the projected top ten wealthiest cities in 2020 and 2025 together with London, São Paulo, Tokyo, New York City and Shanghai.