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No doubt about it, she’s a star. A politician who does politics like other rap: with popular punchlines, messy language and outfits designed by the best fashion designers in the country. Rachida Dati (58) represents many things that Emmanuel Macron (46) himself would like to embody since he was elected president of France six years ago.
Dati is a good example of social progress. She is one of eleven children of a Moroccan mason and an Algerian mother and lived in a social housing estate in Chalon-sur-Saône in Burgundy. Today she lives in the 7th arrondissement of Paris. It exudes the smell of success and money along with popularity. Despite clearly belonging to a political camp – Dati is a member of the Les Républicains party – she has the ability to remain herself and terrify all political opponents.
Forget the cliché image of French elegance in the style of Catherine Deneuve or Sophie Marceau: Dati, who was unexpectedly appointed Minister of Culture on January 11, first seduces and then strikes. “That’s why I compare her to a rapper,” says Yves Bigot, CEO of the French-language broadcaster TV5 Monde, of which SRG is a partner. She has always enjoyed anything that glitters. She always hit where it hurt. And she only looked in one direction: towards the top.
Dati, who completed her law studies and took on her first job as a judge in the 1980s thanks to the support of powerful mentors – including former Justice Minister Albin Chalandon – always saw her future in the French capital, whose elite was so alien to her . Dati is not like Emily, the American from the successful Netflix series, who appears at the foot of the Eiffel Tower with a fat wallet and the addresses of all the luxury boutiques.
Discovered by Sarkozy
When she was discovered in the late 1990s by Nicolas Sarkozy (68), who as a young, right-wing conservative minister was determined to conquer the Élysée Palace, the provincial with Moroccan roots had only two trump cards: her charm and her tenacity. In doing so, it opened the door to closed circles of power, both in business and politics. Her strengths? To be prepared for anything and to trust the social ideals of a republic that still dreams of equal opportunities. As little known, Rachida Dati initially flirted with the left: the Socialist Party of François Mitterrand, who died in January 2016 after fourteen years as president. But Dati’s determination to succeed and her preference for a middle-class life are much better suited to the right.
Makeup and tears
She is soon accepted into the Gaullist party and is supported by highly respected political figures such as former minister Simone Veil (1927–2017), an Auschwitz survivor. Rachida makes a name for herself as others make a name for themselves. Her detractors accuse her of sleeping her way to the top by relying on her beauty to remove all obstacles. She laughs about it. She accepts it, but also suffers from this reputation. One of her biographers, the journalist Jacqueline Remy, summarized her career in a few words in the title of a book about her: “Du rimmel et des larmes” (Rimmel, a not very expensive cosmetic brand, and tears), i.e. make- getting up, getting up, pain and sorrow.
Emmanuel Macron, a master of communication and political ingenuity, sees her as a brother in arms to get his second term back on track, in which he lacks an absolute majority in parliament. Déjà vu: Dati’s path in politics is inextricably linked to her first surprise appointment by another president. In May 2007, Nicolas Sarkozy appointed his previous spokeswoman as Minister of Justice.
The experiment lasted two years and was marked by Dati’s outbursts of anger. But nothing can stop her anymore. In 2009 she became a member of the European Parliament, a mandate that did not particularly interest her. Only Paris matters to them. In March 2008, she became mayor of the chic 7th arrondissement, where most government ministries and the Swiss embassy are located. She wants to become mayor of the capital, like Jacques Chirac once did. Paris or nothing – that is their battle cry from now on.
An almost perfect deal
Rachida Dati as Minister of Culture? For Emmanuel Macron it is an almost perfect deal. The head of state, often called the ‘president of the rich’, must make contact with the people. He also knows that French people with a migrant background dream of success “à la Rachida”. Above all, he wants to destroy justice, of which she is the last star. Dati is hardly known in the world of art and culture. But she has her connections in a neighboring industry, the luxury industry. She knows all the leading minds in the industry.
She is Muslim, but does not practice her religion. She knows how to manage the balancing act between the working-class areas of the suburbs, where Islam dominates, and the Avenue Montaigne, the haven of the great fashion designers. Former Minister of Culture Roselyne Bachelot (77), who also comes from the right-wing camp, believes in Rachida Dati: “She works. She is strict. I like her. She will find allies.” Certainly through public money, on which almost all cultural workers in France depend.
What happens now?
What’s next? Paris of course. Dati, mother of a teenager from a short relationship with a famous businessman (whom she legally forced to acknowledge paternity), has repeatedly said since she took office in government that she will run for local elections in the capital in 2026. In return, your boss Macron promised to change the electoral process so that the mayor of Paris would no longer be elected by the district councils, but directly by the people.
The right-wing party Les Républicains, which immediately excluded her after her appointment, has disappeared. The bourgeois elites in Paris are shaking. Rachida Dati, a ruthless fighter, is ready for the final attack. Culture will serve as a springboard. Think of the lyrics of the Parisian rapper Diam’s, who has now converted to strict Islam: “So I kept running, searching further/higher and higher/further and further/more and more dangerous…”
Source: Blick
I am Amelia James, a passionate journalist with a deep-rooted interest in current affairs. I have more than five years of experience in the media industry, working both as an author and editor for 24 Instant News. My main focus lies in international news, particularly regional conflicts and political issues around the world.
