The Minister of Culture, under the exclusion procedure from the Les Républicains party, responded blow for blow to the criticisms of her former colleagues.
It has been three weeks since Rachida Dati joined the Macronist camp by taking the helm of the Ministry of Culture. However, the mayor of the 7th arrondissement of Paris continues to claim to be part of the Les Républicains party, which immediately launched an exclusion procedure against her. She did not receive the “bailiff” that the boss of LR deputies Olivier Marleix had promised to send her, she joked on France Inter on Wednesday January 31. Faced with criticism from her former camp, she does not mince her words.
“If it’s a matter of cards, I’m going to send it back to them! That’s not the subject, I don’t care, in fact”, she brushes off, without resolving to act on her change of political family: “I am not going to resign from my values, from my convictions,” she insists.
Rachida Dati also responds to the boss of LR senators Bruno Retailleau, who called her an “opportunist” last week: “Listen, we’re going to call Philippe De Villiers, he will say what he thinks of Mr. Retailleau, who passed his life to betray”, she says, in reference to the resounding political break between the senator of Vendée and the creator of Puy-du-Fou, former president of the Movement for France.
Finally, Rachida Dati talks about her disagreements with the Les Républicains party: “There were issues in my political family that were starting to weigh on me more and more, including on the line for the European elections,” she declares. A barely hidden dig at MEP François-Xavier Bellamy, designated head of LR’s list for the second time for the European election on June 9.
