Rachida Dati is angry. At the microphone of RTL this Friday morning, the Minister of Culture attacked the mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, and the newspaper Libération which published on Tuesday an investigation into a contract between Rachida Dati and Orange between 2010 and 2018. A European MP at the time, the lawyer would have received more than 800,000 euros.
“I have a job, I was a magistrate, that’s how I became a lawyer, it’s authorized by law: you can be an elected parliamentarian and a lawyer,” defended the minister who considers that politics remains a mission, “not a profession”.
A possible “conflict of interest”?
“Is this newspaper, which is subsidized by the Paris City Hall, which attacks Rachida Dati, ethical? Is there not a conflict of interest,” asked the elected official before accusing Anne Hidalgo of using the daily newspaper and “her friendship” with the journalist at the origin of the investigation to be able to “attack him on something legal”. ” Is it normal ? », insisted the councilor.
The latter also prided herself on not “living on public money”, “unlike the mayor of Paris” who would pay, she accuses, “her clothes, her hairdresser, her trips” with the funds. public.
Several elected members of the majority reacted after the Libération revelations, like Carine Rolland, deputy mayor of Paris in charge of culture. “In politics, probity must serve as a compass for commitment (…). Confidence in political staff is at stake, our democracy is at stake,” the elected official declared in publication X.
This new episode comes after the indictment of Rachida Dati in July 2021 for “passive corruption” and “concealment of abuse of power” in the investigation into consulting services to Carlos Ghosn, then CEO of Renault-Nissan.
What calls into question the intentions of the former Minister of Justice? The latter confirmed, half-heartedly, in January, her desire to run in the next municipal elections to become the new mayor of the capital. “I’m not going to hide, I’m an elected Parisian,” she declared. I have one desire, it is to bring together those who want things to change in Paris, I am determined. »
Liberation, outraged by these words
A few hours after Rachida Dati’s rant, the editorial management and the Society of Journalists and Libération staff were alarmed by the comments made in a response published on their site. “The direct and personal attacks targeting one of our journalists, as well as the outrageous and unfounded accusation of conflict of interest, seem unworthy of the position occupied by Rachida Dati”, writes the daily, which recalls that as minister responsible for state relations with the media, the latter “must be guarantor of press freedom “.
Still according to the editorial, this calls into question the ethics of Libération “with the sole aim of defending itself against the legal investigations which target it rather than responding on the merits of [nos] revelations.”
