Law and politics
The controversial choice came as a big surprise to France's cultural industries.
Rachida Dati was appointed France's new Minister of Culture during a cabinet reshuffle following the promotion of Gabriel Attal to Prime Minister. This news comes as a surprise due to Dati's association with the right-wing Republican Party. She was previously Minister of Justice in Nicolas Sarkozy's right-wing government from 2007 to 2009.
“Everyone knows I like to fight. Don’t be afraid of me,” Dati declared upon her arrival at the Ministry. times. She is known for her chic style and frank, no-nonsense approach, having returned to work just five days after giving birth to her first child, and reportedly declaring that maternity leave is for “cowards”.
The resigned Minister of Culture, Rima Abdel Malik, was openly leftist and recently opposed a new French law that would suppress immigration. Unlike Malak, who specializes in performing arts, Dati does not have a background in arts and culture but is a highly experienced politician who is known and loved across the country.
In 2007, Dati was the first Muslim woman to become a minister in France. Dati, whose father is Moroccan and mother is Algerian, grew up in poverty as one of 11 children in the town of Chalon-sur-Saône, Burgundy. When Sarkozy chose her, he said that her appointment sends a message “to all the children of France that with merit and effort everything is possible.”
There was widespread backlash against Dati's appointment to the Ministry of Culture. Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo, who beat Dati in the 2020 election, publicly stated: “Good luck to people in the cultural world, given the adversity they will face.”
according to the worldHowever, the data represents a “big prize” for Macron. The newspaper also claimed that she took up this position on the condition that she would top the list in the municipal elections in Paris in 2026. She has been mayor of the city's seventh district since 2008, but since accepting the position of Minister of Culture, she has been forcibly removed from her position. Republican Party. Dati was described as a “traitor”, and party leader Eric Cioti accused her of “putting herself outside our political family,” according to what was reported by Reuters. France24.
Dati is also currently subject to an official investigation into her relations with Carlos Ghosn. The former president and CEO of Renault, Nissan and Mitsubishi Motors is a fugitive who fled Japan in December 2019 while awaiting trial for alleged financial misconduct. Between 2010 and 2012, Dati did advisory work for Ghosn, and France's financial crimes unit is working to determine whether the €900,000 ($985,000) payment she received from Renault while she was a member of the European Parliament was actually for illegal lobbying. . , according to the guardian. Dati denied any wrongdoing.
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