On June 18, 2025, Rachida Dati is the guest on C à vous. Facing Patrick Cohen, she becomes agitated after a question about the suspicions of passive corruption in the Carlos Ghosn case. Instead of defending herself, she turns the question around by declaring: "I can take it to court." She refers to Article 40 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. Furthermore, she denounces a double standard in media treatment.
This altercation is not isolated. As early as 2023, she was already denouncing the “thug methods” of Complément d’enquête. The sequence with France Télévisions is deemed "unacceptable" by the channel. It reveals the chasm between a defensive media elite and a disruptive political woman.
For Rachida Dati is disruptive. By her style, by her free speech, but also by her social and ethnic origin. Coming from a working-class neighborhood, the daughter of immigrants, she remains a rare figure at the top of the State. And this, some do not forgive her.
A journey fraught with obstacles
In 2007, Rachida Dati became the first woman of North African descent to lead a sovereign ministry. Appointed to Justice by Nicolas Sarkozy, she led bold reforms: judicial map, minimum sentences, criminal responsibility. She is applauded and vilified, sometimes in terms that spare neither her gender nor her origins.
After leaving the government, she joined the European Parliament. There, she forged strategic relationships, which would later fuel judicial challenges. In 2024, she rejoined the government as Minister of Culture under Gabriel Attal. She is then retained by Michel Barnier and François Bayrou.
This return to public affairs confirms her resilience. Where others would have folded, she asserts herself. But the price is heavy: social networks harass her, her private life is commented on, scrutinized, instrumentalized.
A divisive audiovisual reform
At Culture, Rachida Dati undertakes an ambitious reform: merging Radio France and France Télévisions into a single entity. Officially, it is about simplifying, saving, modernizing. Unofficially, her detractors accuse her of wanting to weaken editorial independence.
In May 2025, on France Inter, she criticizes a “caricature” of her reform. She lambasts a radio that has become a “club for upper middle class and retirees.” This tone irritates, but it reflects a desire to break with a culture of exclusivity. Behind the controversy, it is a reflection on the divide between Paris and the rest of the country that emerges.
The unions are alarmed. The editorialists are inflamed. But a part of the public listens to this dissonant voice, which embodies another vision of culture, less elitist, more popular.
A strategy of rupture, but at what cost?
Rachida Dati‘s communication relies on division. She opposes. She disrupts. But this positioning is not gratuitous. It allows her to occupy the field, to exist in a space saturated by male and technocratic figures.
In the face of accusations, she responds with counterattacks. In the face of investigations, she denounces pressures. This offensive style shocks as much as it galvanizes. It marginalizes her with some, but strengthens her stature with others, tired of silent compromises.
Her words are sharp. Her media presence irritates. But in this tumult, she forces the debate, she embodies an internal opposition to a sometimes too smooth majority.
Paris as a horizon, the city hall as an anchor
Already a candidate in the 2020 municipal elections, Rachida Dati is once again aiming for Paris in 2026. For this, she retains her position as mayor of the 7th arrondissement, believing it does not contravene the principle of non-cumulation. This decision is criticized, but it anchors her legitimacy on the ground.
Again, she is reproached for what is tolerated in others. Her ambition bothers. But she holds firm. And despite the storms, she gains the support of part of the executive. The audiovisual reform remains on the agenda. The battle continues.
A political woman in permanent imbalance
Rachida Dati is a tightrope walker of the Republic. Her journey is fraught with pitfalls. She advances on a wire: between power and marginalization, between institutional recognition and cultural rejection.
She is reproached for friendships, contracts, travels. She is also reproached for not fitting the mold. For not being silent. For not pleasing. Her personality, lively, direct, is often caricatured. Her appearance, her motherhood, her private life are regularly used to undermine her.
But she remains. And she speaks. And she acts. A disturbing figure for some, a model of success for others, Rachida Dati crystallizes the tensions of an era where public speech is both monitored and overexposed.
An essential presence in the French right
In a political landscape in recomposition, Rachida Dati occupies a unique place. Too free to please the establishment. Too offensive to blend into consensus. But too present to be ignored.
On the right, she embodies a style. A vision. And a journey that no one can dismiss with a wave of the hand. Her ability to resist, to bounce back, to confront, constitutes in itself a message. It is that of a politician who does not forget her origins. She does not intend to ask for permission to exist.
In a system where female figures from diverse backgrounds remain a minority, Rachida Dati is the exception. And perhaps, in her own way, the promise of a future shift.