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In Miraculous Ladybug, André Bourgeois is the mayor of Paris. He is said to have won election four times, meaning that he has been mayor for almost two decades. Moreover, in his most recent election, he won with an astounding 97% of the votes cast, a result which would make some dictators envious.

However, he shows very few appealing qualities as a politician. He has a weak personality and lacks charisma, is of average intelligence at best, and has trouble standing up to people. Further, despite his seemingly monumental popularity, a rather broad cross-section of Paris turns out to protest against one of his signature projects in "Mega Leech," apparently spontaneously. On top of that, he has done almost nothing to prevent akumatized villains from ravaging the city. It seems that every other week, one of them trashes the Eiffel Tower (which only happens to be the symbol of France). In fact, he himself has been akumatized into the villain Malediktator several times, which despite mostly not being his fault, would not seem to be good for his popularity.

In short, what makes André so incredibly popular as a mayor?

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    Standing in an election against a supervillain doesn't sound like a solid life-choice. Presumably everyone who's a credible competitor would rather not be brutally murdered.
    – Valorum
    Commented Jul 27, 2021 at 1:56
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    @Valorum - He is not a supervillain as such. He has briefly been turned into a supervillain against his will a few times by Hawk Moth, which can happen to almost anyone, and has. Further, during the first 17 or so years of his mayorship, there were no akumatized villains at all, yet he still was quite popular. In fact, now that I think about it, he had not been akumatized into Malediktator at all when he won 97%.
    – Adamant
    Commented Jul 27, 2021 at 1:59
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    The real Paris is filthy and the tourist areas are littered with the homeless and aggressive beggars. Evidently Mayor Bourgeois has managed to fix those problems. He gets my vote.
    – Valorum
    Commented Aug 6, 2021 at 21:51
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    @Valorum - I can't agree that human beings can "litter" an area.
    – Adamant
    Commented Aug 6, 2021 at 23:46

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Evidently his electoral success is preceded by carefully orchestrated smear campaigns against his opponents.

Chloé: I've watched how my daddy wins every election, and I'm going to follow in his footsteps. I know just how to win!

Sabrina: By having the best campaign?

Chloé: Ha! Whatever! The secret to winning in politics is ruining your opponent's reputation!

Ladybug: Darkblade

If we take Chloé's actions in the episode where she runs for class rep (blackmail, coercion, muckraking, celebrity endorsement, transactional vote-buying) as being representative of what she learned from daddy, he seems like a fairly shady character.

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