R
achida Dati wants to become the next mayor of Paris. It is her obsession. The more obstacles she faces, the more France's culture minister embraces transgression. On Monday, July 28, she announced she would run for the Assemblée Nationale's open seat in Paris's 2nd constituency, without waiting for the decision of the conservative Les Républicains (LR) party, which chose to nominate Michel Barnier. It was an unelegant snub of the former prime minister under whom she served last year, reigniting the French right's old poison of division. It is hard to say whether she is still a member of LR or has now joined President Emmanuel Macron's camp. The former protégée of Nicolas Sarkozy now works for herself, and herself alone.
Among the many adversaries she likes to make, Dati also counts judges. On Tuesday, July 22, she was ordered to stand criminal trial on charges of corruption and influence peddling, over suspicions that she engaged in illegal lobbying in the European Parliament on behalf of Carlos Ghosn, the former head of Renault-Nissan, in exchange for €900,000 in fees. Dati counterattacked in pure Sarkozy style. Criticizing what she called a "procedure marred by incidents," she tried to put the prosecutor for financial crimes, Jean-François Bohnert, in an awkward position with the office over which he has authority. Prime Minister François Bayrou had to remind her of what she should not have pretended to ignore: Respect for the judicial institution is "a state duty."
