“Everyone knows that I like to fight, don’t be afraid,” said Rachida Dati on Friday when she took office as Minister of Culture, promising to defend the French “cultural exception” and “popular culture “.
“I will always be there to defend the cultural exception”
“I understand (that this appointment) may surprise me, it does not surprise me,” continued the woman who was Nicolas Sarkozy’s Minister of Justice from 2007 to 2009. “It responds to a real need, the need of France that we often say popular, who must feel represented. Through my career, culture is a fight, an everyday fight”, insisted Rachida Dati, in front of the boss of France Télévisions Delphine Ernotte and that of Radiofrance Sibyle Veil. She said she wanted to “build a new popular culture for everyone (…), from neighborhoods to rural areas”.
“I will always be there to defend the cultural exception,” she assured, emphasizing the need to “make culture even more present in all cities and territories”.
“I personally know (…) what I owe to French culture”
Born on November 27, 1965 to a father of Moroccan origin and a mother of Algerian origin, the minister comes from a family of twelve children and was raised in an HLM in Chalon-sur-Saône. “I personally know (…) what I owe to French culture: freedom of thought, particularly for women, freedom of speech, particularly for women, freedom to create, particularly for women,” he said. she said. “I am very proud, very moved to have been appointed by the President of the Republic on the recommendation of the Prime Minister,” she underlined.
“We have in common that we embody the cultural diversity that makes our society rich,” she told the person who previously held the position, Rima Abdul Malak, herself of Lebanese origin.
Among her priorities, Ms. Dati cited the reopening of Notre-Dame de Paris cathedral at the end of 2024, more than five years after the fire which ravaged it. She did not allude to her legal troubles, which were the subject of attacks by the opposition to her appointment. 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 investigation into contracts entered into by a subsidiary of Renault-Nissan, when Carlos Ghosn in was the CEO. She denies any irregularity.
For her part, Rima Abdul Malak assured that she “remained free from (her) commitments, from (her) positions taken” during her stay at the ministry. She was disavowed in December by President Macron, after describing actor Gérard Depardieu, accused of rape and sexual violence, which he denies, as a “disgrace” for France.