With the surprise appointment of Rachida Dati to the Culture Ministry on Thursday, January 11, Emmanuel Macron has pulled off the second "coup" of his cabinet reshuffle. After Gabriel Attal's appointment to the premiership, it's Dati, former president Nicolas Sarkozy's energetic and media-savvy former justice minister (2007-2009) who has made her entrance to the Culture Ministry. A true icon of French politics, she is widely known to the general public.
Reflecting Macron's renewed desire for "disruption," Dati, a member of the Les Républicains (LR, right) party, embodies a political "prize catch" that suddenly lends gravitas to the first Attal government, within which the previous administration's heavyweights – Bruno Le Maire, Gérald Darmanin or Sébastien Lecornu – have remained in office.
While the names of journalists Claire Chazal and Stéphane Bern had been bandied about for a while, Dati is a professional politician who's anything but bland, having been the mayor of Paris's 7th arrondissement since 2008. She takes over from Rima Abdul Malak, Emmanuel Macron's former cultural advisor at the Elysée, who had little political clout once she was appointed minister.
For Attal – who expressed being "happy" with this appointment – Dati's "energy" comes at just the right time. On the right, where many had hoped that the days of poaching were over, this surprise announcement was not well received. On Thursday evening, LR president Eric Ciotti announced his intention to exclude Dati from the party following her appointment, saying she had "placed herself outside our political family."
Thunderous criticism
For the culture scene, it's an earth-shattering appointment. Beyond her assertive temperament, Dati, 58 – daughter of a Moroccan bricklayer and an Algerian housewife – is not known for her technical mastery of cultural issues. On the other hand, she will use all her political know-how, all her popularity (her wax statue has pride of place in Paris' wax statue Grévin museum), and all her – albeit divisive – public prominence to place her ministry in the spotlight.
Within the government, she should benefit from a certain amount of freedom to maneuver, which she will take advantage of if necessary – emancipation being in her nature, as much as outspokenness. But will she enjoy the Elysée's unconditional support for whatever move she might envisage, however nonconforming they may be?
It also remains to be seen whether she will be able to respect the government's unity without playing her personal game. She has never been lacking in thunderous criticism of Macron's supporters in the past, such as this outburst on France Inter public radio on June 21, 2021, following the regional elections: "[Macron's party] is a party of what? [...] It's traitors from the left and traitors from the right. [...] It's not harsh, it's reality!"
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