A political-financial issue that Rachida Dati would have preferred to avoid, currently in the pole position to conquer the Paris City Council next March. The investigation judges ordered on July 22 that the Minister of Culture was unprotected before a Criminal Court.
Therefore, the former guardian of the stamps will have to respond to the courts of accusations of “concealment of the abuse of power and breach of trust” and “corruption and traffic of passive influence by the person invested with a public elective mandate within an international organization.”
• What do we blame Rachida Dati?
The alleged events against Rachida Dati extended from 2010 to 2012. At that time, former justice minister Nicolas Sarkozy was a European vice president and exercises the function of the lawyer.
In October 2009, a few months after his arrival in the European Parliament, Rachida Dati signed a contract with RNBV, the alliance that brings together Renault and Nissan car manufacturers, then directed by Carlos Ghosn, against a remuneration of 900,000 euros.
Several questions about this contract arise, beginning with its legality within the framework of the rules of the European Parliament. The rules of cumulative employment are extremely strict in the mysteries of Brussels. Lobbying and advice activities are, for example, prohibited from MEPs.
Rachida Dati denies it, making sure that he will work with the limit of his lawyer in “a legal framework” for Renault-Nissan, then shaken by the international financial crisis and the Arab spring.
The fact of accumulating functions of European lawyers and deputies is well authorized. But the tempo questioned: In 2009, when he signed his contract with Renault-Nissan, she was not yet a lawyer and only registered in the Paris Bar Association until February 2010.
The method points, according to the Office of the National Financial Prosecutor (PNF), to “overcome the prohibition” of lobbying and advice and “exercise an advisory activity that defended itself despite everything.”
For PNF magistrates, the former Minister of Justice “advised the Renault group to promote their rights and interests to the European Parliament.” She would also have “used her real or supposed influence to carry out lobbying actions.”
Another question: the reality of the services provided. “The numerous investigations” carried out by the PNF “have allowed to identify very little evidence of the existence and reality of the services provided” by Rachida Dati. While his contract with Renault-Nissan planned for an annual report, the PNF did not find a trace of him and the current Minister of Culture could not produce it.
“The only elements to support Rachida Dati’s real work are based mainly on testimonies,” says the PNF, and from people who “had interest in confirming the reality of their work.” Enough to make the magistrates say that this contract “was the legal coverage of a corrupt patent pact.”
• How do you defend Rachida Dati?
Since the beginning of this case, Rachida Dati has denied all the alleged facts and has said that he has worked well on behalf of the car manufacturer. The head of Renault-Nissan at that time Carlos Ghosn, under an international arrest warrant since his escape from a Japanese prison and himself prosecuted by French justice in the context of this case, presented Rachida Dati as “a consultant.” He has repeatedly mentioned the “commercial diplomacy”, according to the information of the Radio France Research Unit.
In more general terms, the Minister of Culture has been trying since the beginning of the procedure to cancel it and indicates in particular the complaint of a Renault shareholder behind the case.
Already in 2019, Rachida Dati wrote a letter to Eliane Houlette, then Patron Saint of the PNF, explaining that the plaintiff is actually the wife of Renault’s own shareholder. She laments “a manipulation” and requested the classification of the complaint. If justice has declared inadmissible the constitution of the civil party of the demanding shareholder, the PNF has continued its investigations.
Another strategy: to cut those who put doubts about the reality of the work she would have done for the Renault-Nissan alliance. This is the case of the current president of Renault Jean-Dominique Senard, of Renault, that the minister accuses “omission to testify in favor of an innocent” for having “hidden and makes the French justice hide essential documents” to innocents. In early January, the minister finally resigned to quote him.
Finally, Rachida Dati’s lawyers try to demonstrate that the assumptions are prescribed and, therefore, could no longer be prosecuted by justice. It was in this sense that she had presented an appeal against the PNF accusation that requested a trial. But the greatest failed on June 26.
However, the minister presented a new appeal before the Court of Cassation at the beginning of July, this time arguing in the absence in the judicial archive of a “decisive piece”, his rate agreement that links him with the automotive group.
• What awaits Rachida Dati?
This July 22, two investigating judges ordered a trial against Rachida Dati. It will be summoned on September 29 to the Correctional Court to find out the dates of your trial. The Minister of Culture, however, requested his correctional reference. If the trial is carried out, it is likely to be held after the municipal elections organized in March 2026.
Meanwhile, former Nicolas Sarkozy minister is well maintained in his position in culture. At the end of Tuesday, the Head of State said that “he pointed out the decision of the dismissal of Rachida Dati before the Criminal Court.” But “a reference that is not a conviction, she continues her work with the government,” he said through those around her. In 2017, Emmanuel Macron requested the resignation of any accused minister, before applying this principle in an extremely variable way.
Specifically, Rachida Dati runs the risk of up to 10 years in prison and a fine of one million euros for “corruption and influence of traffic.”
• What are the political implications of this reference to justice?
At the moment, the government is rather a low profile in the case of Rachida Dati. Only Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin said Tuesday on TF1 on Tuesday I desire “ardently that he is mayor of Paris.”
The government spokeswoman, Sophie Primas, was content with the departure of the Council of Ministers that the Executive “respected the presumption of innocence.” But on the left, we do not hesitate to use the situation to attack Rachida Dati and ask for his resignation as a Minister of Culture.
If it is difficult to judge specifically if this reference to justice is a disability for it in the race for the City of Paris, this judicial decision is obviously not a prestigious launch ramp to begin its campaign.
This news falls even more, since the Parisian political context is eruptive, among part of the right that urges him to bend an internal primary and macronistas that are being reinforced to support it.
Source: BFM TV
