Sawt Falasteen - Race for Paris mayor on knife's edge after first round

Rachida Dati, until recently France's culture minister, hopes to become the capital's second woman mayor in a row, and bring Paris under control of the right for the first time in 25 years.

Her main rival is Socialist former deputy mayor Emmanuel Gregoire, who came out well ahead of her in a first round of voting on Sunday.

But a new alliance on the right, if confirmed, could put them head-to-head.

Gregoire has promised to carry on the legacy of outgoing Socialist mayor Anne Hidalgo, including increasing the number of bike lanes and green spaces and improving public housing in the densely populated city of two million people.

Dati -- soon to go on trial for graft charges she denies -- has vowed to make the city cleaner and safer, pledging to improve rubbish collection, give weapons to municipal police officers and increase video surveillance.

Gregoire scored 37.98 percent of the vote, with Dati taking 25.46 percent. Three other candidates also made it through to the second round next Sunday.

The hard left's Sophia Chikirou came third with 11.72 percent followed by centre-right hopeful Pierre-Yves Bournazel with 11.34 percent, and far-right contender Sarah Knafo with 10.40 percent.

- Conditions -

With the second round just six days away, the race is on for leading candidates to form alliances.

Dati claimed on X she had teamed up with her centre-right opponent.

"We're going to work with Bournazel on a project for political change," she announced. "The lives of Parisians over the next six years are at stake."

A member of Bournazel's team however told AFP that "nothing had been decided yet".

The candidate said his conditions included Dati rejecting any alliance with the far-right candidate, who has offered to back her.

But President Emmanuel Macron has already approved Dati and Bournazel joining forces, according to a source at the Elysee Palace.

Bournazel also urged Dati to promise to overhaul the city's recruitment of school monitors, after uproar in recent months over allegations that several have physically or sexually abused kindergarten pupils.

Gregoire has pledged to improve the training of school monitors.

- 'Waiting for a call' -

Gregoire has refused to join forces with the hard-left France Unbowed (LFI) party's Chikirou, his team said.

She has said she would remain in the race, splitting the left, if Gregoire refused an alliance.

"I'm waiting for a call from Gregoire to block Dati's path in Paris," she wrote on X.

Several politicians on the left have refused to ally with the hard left after the killing last month of a far-right activist blamed on fringe leftists.

Dati is due to appear in court in September charged with corruption between 2010 and 2012 when she was a member of the European Parliament, but she has denied the charges.

Hidalgo, the outgoing mayor who beat Dati in the last election, has called on the left to rally around Gregoire.

She urged votes for Gregoire to stave off "the danger of populism, corruption, backsliding, policies that destroy environmental and social protections, and the dismantling of public services."

Supporters credit Hidalgo and her Green allies with boosting bike lanes and pushing out traffic from the city centre, and making the Seine swimmable for the first time in a century for the 2024 Summer Olympics.

But critics accuse her of merely shifting traffic elsewhere, while also allowing security, cleanliness and public transport to deteriorate.

B.Khalifa--SF-PST