section_path: Administration/City government
section_name: City government
paragraph_text: City government
  
  For almost all of its long history, except for a few brief periods, Paris was governed directly by representatives of the king, emperor, or president of France. In 1974, Paris was granted municipal autonomy by the National Assembly. The first modern elected mayor of Paris was Jacques Chirac, elected March 1977, becoming the city's first mayor since 1871 and only the fourth since 1794. The current mayor is Anne Hidalgo, a socialist, first elected in April 2014, and re-elected in June 2020.
  
  The mayor of Paris is elected indirectly by Paris voters. The voters of each of the city's 20 arrondissements elect members to the Conseil de Paris (Council of Paris), which elects the mayor. The council is composed of 163 members. Each arrondissement is allocated a number of seats dependent upon its population, from 10 members for each of the least-populated arrondissements, to 34 members for the most populated. The council is elected using closed list proportional representation in a two-round system.
  
  Party lists winning an absolute majority in the first round – or at least a plurality in the second round – automatically win half the seats of an arrondissement. The remaining half of seats are distributed proportionally to all lists which win at least 5% of the vote, using the highest averages method. This ensures that the winning party or coalition always wins a majority of the seats, even if they do not win an absolute majority of the vote.
  
  Prior to the 2020 Paris municipal election, each of Paris's 20 arrondissements had its own town hall and a directly elected council (conseil d'arrondissement), which elects an arrondissement mayor. The council of each arrondissement is composed of members of the Conseil de Paris, and members who serve only on the council of the arrondissement. The number of deputy mayors in each arrondissement varies depending upon its population. As of 1996, there were 20 arrondissement mayors and 120 deputy mayors. The creation of Paris Centre, a unified administrative division with a single mayor covering the first four arrondissements, took effect with the said 2020 election. The other 16 arrondissements continue to have their own mayors.