Macron signs the controversial Dati, minister with Sarkozy, in a Government leaning to the right

Rachida Dati, Minister of Justice under the conservative president Nicolas Sarkozy and indicted since 2021 for a case of alleged corruption and abuse of power, is the surprise signing, and the most controversial, of Emmanuel Macron for the new Government led by the young Gabriel Attal . Dati's appointment in Culture, this Thursday, confirms Macron's turn to the right. It shows the will to continue the takeover of the most moderate sectors of the Republicans (LR), the sister party of the PP in France, to combat the extreme right of Marine Le Pen.

At the same time that he elects moderate conservatives such as Dati or Catherine Vautrin in Social Affairs, Macron dispenses with some of the left wing ministers who in December rebelled against the adoption of the immigration law for considering it too right-wing. And it keeps heavyweights in the Government such as the head of Economy and Finance, Bruno Le Maire, and that of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, unhappy with the appointment, on Tuesday, of Prime Minister Attal who, at 34 years old, is the youngest of the Fifth Republic. Le Maire and Darmanin, also from LR, are among the candidates to succeed Macron in the 2027 presidential elections.

The Elysee Palace has decided to announce the new Government in two stages. The senior ministers, this Thursday, and on Friday, the day of the first Council of Ministers of the new Government, the secretaries of State are expected to meet. Another surprise appointment is that of Stéphane Séjourné, current leader of the liberal Renew group in the European Parliament and Macron's trusted man, in the Quai d'Orsay, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Europe, replacing Catherine Colonna. Three of the most important ministries (Foreign Affairs, Economy and Finance and Interior) are thus left in the hands of men. Also Defense and Justice. Among the 14 ministers announced, there are seven men and seven women.

Dati is a pure product of the now questioned French meritocracy. She is the daughter of Muslim immigrants in a family of 11 siblings. Her father was a Moroccan worker; her mother, an Algerian who couldn't read. She worked from the age of 14, while studying. She was a magistrate and then Minister of Justice with Sarkozy between 2007 and 2009. Until now she was the leader of the conservative opposition in the Council of Paris, the staunchest adversary of the mayor, the socialist Anne Hidalgo.

Like Sarkozy, Dati understands politics as a combat sport. He doesn't bite his tongue and looks for hand-to-hand combat. Of a collaborator and friend of Sarkozy, he said: “he is a cynical façade.” He described the former conservative Prime Minister François Fillon, who was his boss in the Government, as “cluttered (…), egocentric, frustrated, jealous.” In 2021 he described Macron's party, which brought together former members of the Socialist Party and LR, like this: “They are traitors to the left and traitors to the right.” His only known loyalty is to Sarkoas she calls him, and that is why the appointment has been interpreted as a victory for the former president, who places his members in the new Government.

Dati's appointment also confirms that the old doctrine according to which there can be no accused ministers has been definitively buried. The judges are investigating her for having collected, between 2010 and 2012, 900,000 euros from the Renault automobile company, as a lawyer, while she was also an MEP. She has not yet been tried, so the presumption of innocence prevails.

Dati replaces Rima Abdul-Malak in Culture. The former minister stood out in her criticism of the immigration law and she called for the withdrawal of actor Gérard Depardieu from the Legion of Honor after the broadcast of a documentary in which she uttered obscenities. Macron disavowed Abdul-Malak and declared that Depardieu is a credit to France.

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