Paris Mayoral Candidate Rachida Dati to Leave Government

Culture Minister Rachida Dati, appointed in January 2024, will no longer be a member of Sébastien Lecornu's government in the coming weeks.

Rachida Dati, Minister of Culture since January 2024, announced this Sunday on France Inter that she would leave the government before the municipal elections, which will take place on March 15 and 22, 2026. She is running for mayor of Paris, facing, among others, the socialist Emmanuel Grégoire.

"Of course I will leave the government" before the municipal election but "I will not tell you here when," declared the minister, also mayor of the 7th arrondissement. "There are some cultural actors who would like me to defend their budget until the end," added Rachida Dati to the public radio.

"I do not want to have a first-round debate, it makes no sense," assured the candidate, who says she is "ready to debate with Parisians" whom she calls for "useful vote," in her favor, from the first round, but not with her political opponents.

When questioned about the judicial cases against her, particularly the accusations of corruption, the candidate replied that she had signed "a lawyer's contract that I had for Renault Nissan to defend their interests and develop them." "I did not dip into the till," she added.

The minister is due to be tried in Paris for corruption and influence peddling in September 2026, suspected of having unduly received 900,000 euros between 2010 and 2012 from a subsidiary of the Renault-Nissan alliance when Carlos Ghosn was CEO and when she was a Member of the European Parliament. She disputes all charges.

The former Keeper of the Seals under Nicolas Sarkozy is also the subject of an investigation into the potential non-declaration of luxury jewelry to the High Authority for Transparency in Public Life. She again denies any wrongdoing.

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