Nicolas Sarkozy’s former Minister of Justice enters the government, rue de Valois. A political blow for Emmanuel Macron, which accelerates the partisan recomposition.
It’s the chef’s surprise, the one that no one expected. Thursday January 11, Rachida Dati was appointed Minister of Culture in the government of Gabriel Attal. “It’s huge, frankly”comments, a bit bewildered, a Renaissance executive, while a heavyweight from the majority speaks of“a big blow”. It must be said that Nicolas Sarkozy’s former and charismatic Minister of Justice is extremely identified by the French and ticks, once again, the “right-wing defector” box for the presidential camp.
“She really has character and real political weight”, notes a ministerial advisor. The former MEP, now mayor of the 7th arrondissement of Paris, was also one of the leaders of LR since she was until then president of the party’s national council. She is also and above all the president of the main opposition group in the Paris Council, after having led the battle against Anne Hidalgo in 2020. It is also in front of the elected Parisian LR officials that she announced, Thursday at the end of day, his appointment. “I’m going to stay LR, I’m resigning from the national council”she declared in particular, according to a participant. But the party’s response was immediate, once his nomination was made official by the Elysée. Rachida Dati “places herself outside our political family. She is no longer part of the Republicans”reacted Eric Ciotti, the boss of LR. We are in the opposition, so we draw the consequences of his choice with regret.”
“LR is dead”
For the right, it is yet from a “major political tremor”comments an LR deputy who says to himself “moderate”. “The beam is working faster than expected, the tripartite (RN, left and central block) is being put in place, and above all it means that LR is dead”, even believes this parliamentarian. “We’re becoming the tail of a comet and we won’t do anything to the Europeans.” he adds. If Eric Ciotti quickly closed the door to an agreement with the government by excluding Rachida Dati, this one had in any case herself pleaded, like Jean-François Copé, for an alliance with Emmanuel Macron. “As a matter of responsibility, we must sit around the table to find a government agreement to be able to turn our country around,” assured this former lawyer on France Culture, in March 2023.
“It’s a huge blow for LR: it’s still a considerable war prize, it’s president of the LR national council!”, reacted stunned a Parisian LR mayor before his exclusion. Not everyone has the same reading of the situation. “Congratulations to her, she’s someone I appreciate but that doesn’t move any voices in the LR group”assures LR deputy Julien Dive. “I think she is guided by her personal ambition to be mayor of Paris”scathed his colleague Hubert Brigand, just before Eric Ciotti’s announcement.
And despite the party president’s press release, some, among the most “Macron compatible”, are adapting very well to this entry into the government of Nicolas Sarkozy’s former spokesperson.. “It’s a very good move. It foreshadows a political recomposition, already Parisian but also national”, wants to believe another LR deputy.
The cards reshuffled for Paris in 2026
It is undoubtedly still too early to measure the impact of Rachida Dati’s appointment on the national level but, on the local level, the consequences are already major. “The only thing I want to keep is the confidence of the LR group, I have the assurance of the stakes of the Paris town hall, I have made sure of it”, also launched Rachida Dati in front of Parisian elected officials, just before her appointment. The entry into government of the woman who had marked the Ministry of Justice by the establishment of minimum sentences, the reform of the Penal Code for minors or the modification of the judicial map in fact foreshadows a deal with the majority on the municipal elections of Paris in 2026. “It’s getting there”slips a Parisian LR elected official.
“That means goodbye to the ambitions of Beaune”, ensures a framework of the majority, while Clément Beaune, Minister of Transport under Elisabeth Borne, made no secret of his Parisian ambitions. “The reconquest of Paris is suddenly possible, that means that Hidalgo is finished”comments an LR deputy. “The President of the Republic and Gabriel Attal clearly put the capture of Paris as a political objective for 2026, because only the alliance with Rachida Dati, even without LR, can tilt the city“, asserts a ministerial advisor.
The deal between Rachida Dati and the presidential camp, however, does not worry Emmanuel Grégoire, Anne Hidalgo’s first deputy, according to the latter’s entourage. “They haven’t been able to agree so far. The pink-green-red majority remains solid,” we say. On the social network X, Emmanuel Grégoire preferred to focus on Rachida Dati’s legal affairs.
Previously, an indicted minister had to resign. Now indicted for corruption can be appointed minister.
Rachida Dati has been indicted since July 2021 for “corruption”… what an inspiration for the world of culture…
— Emmanuel Grégoire (@egregoire) January 11, 2024
With this political coup, Emmanuel Macron is indeed taking a risk. Rachida Dati has been indicted since July 2021 for “corruption and passive influence peddling by a person invested with a public elective mandate” in the Carlos Ghosn affair. In this judicial investigation opened in July 2019, suspicions weigh on the former Minister of Justice concerning a sum of 900,000 euros paid to her between 2010 and 2012 by RNBV, a Dutch subsidiary of the Renault-Nissan alliance, while she was a lawyer and MEP. In this case, the investigation is completed and the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office must now make its submissions before the investigating judge orders, or not, a trial.
“Macron is going to do a Bayrou with Dati: appoint her, blow up the right and fire her when she is sentenced in three months”, mocks a right-wing MP, in reference to the premature departure of the government of the boss of the MoDem, in 2017, implicated in the affair of the assistants of MEPs. In any case, for the majority, this designation makes you smile. “We are on the right, that suits us very well, but you will have to explain to me where the return to the sources of the macronism of 2017 is”pretends to question the advisor of a right-wing minister.