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The leader of the Socialist Party in France wants to change the name of the Île-de-France region to reflect its metropolitan identity, and the mayor of Paris agrees.
Claude Bartolone wants to rename the region, which more than eighteen percent of the country calls home, “Paris-Île-de-France” after the city that, strangely enough, eighteen percent of the region calls home. Bartolone believes that adding Paris to the name will make the region more competitive, calling the city’s brand the “second best-known brand in the world after Coca-Cola.”
Mayor Anne Hidalgo, who has proven to harbor more than a passing bias for the city she governs, agrees. Bruno Julliard, a deputy of Hidalgo’s, added, “It’s a great idea to highlight Paris as the engine of the region.”
Members of the Left Front don’t agree with the proposal to change the name of the region, reminding the country that similar changes elsewhere have cost the government upwards of 400,000€ in signage and the like. They don’t view the issue as a priority in French politics, at least not on the order of “preventing the right and extreme right from taking over the region,” according to LF candidate Eric Coquerel. “It takes longer to pronounce—” ‘Paris-Île-de-France,’ that is “—but it has a different flavor than Coca-Cola.”
