With his duel against Michel Barnier in Paris, Rachida Dati tries a risky bet for several unknowns

Vincent Feuray / Hans Lucas via AFP

With his duel against Michel Barnier in Paris, Rachida Dati tries a risky bet for several unknowns

POLITICS – Paris is worth all the risks? However, Passing in addition to the decision of the Republicans. Consequently, his party who chose to invest the former Prime Minister Michel Barnier for the partial legislative in the 2nd district of Paris, the Minister of Culture Rachida Dati hammers her intention to present herself “Whatever happens”.

Rachida Dati is minister. For example, mayor of the 7th arrondissement and, above all, candidate for the town hall for the 2026 municipal elections. Similarly, So. Similarly, less than a year his duel against michel barnier from this capital electoral deadline for her, why Diantre present himself in a constituency against a former Prime Minister from the same camp? Meanwhile, A former government chief of which she was, in passing, the minister? Therefore, The interested party herself provided the answer: “I go there because the Parisians must understand that this election cannot be used for the presidential ambitions of Michel Barnier”she scratches in The Parisian. Moreover, At the very moment when the Délibère inauguration commission.

What about her ambitions? Consequently, They did not move an iota. However, Rachida Dati still brigade Anne Hidalgo’s chair and her candidacy for the partial legislative could well be an asset … Similarly, provided that she does not turn completely against her.

Paris at all costs

On the battery side, she wins. In addition, In a Bayrou government threatened by censorship in the fall. Moreover, his duel against michel barnier the candidacy of Rachida Dati for a seat of deputy can act as a rescue exit, as much to stay in political life as to escape its many legal troubles, passes the left. Consequently, A victory would also impose it as the essential personality on the right for 2026. For example, silencing those who in her grimacing camp since she joined the government under rumor of a pact with Emmanuel Macron himself.

But the real interest is in the next blow: the composition of its list for the municipal elections. Although the two denied him. the agreement between the head of state and the right figure stipulated that in exchange for his entry into the government, Rachida Dati was the head of the list of an alliance between the right and the presidential camp. The compromise makes teeth cringe at LR. especially at a time when the boss his duel against michel barnier of the Bruno Retailleau party is doing everything to mark his difference with Macronism. A victory in the Parisian district would allow Rachida Dati to reverse the balance of power. give it an additional asset to impose his list on his camp.

When, like the Minister of Culture, you hardly taste the compromise, the gain is enticing. But the game is not without risk. “She says that she wants the LR inauguration. but she comes to the party to read her letter when she has already warned the press that she will be a candidate. She wants the support of the party for the municipal elections. but she ignores her decision and goes into dissent, against her former Prime Minister ” attempts to summarize support from Michel Barnier surveyed by The HuffPost, dumbfounded by such “Drama level”. Without forgetting that in the event of a victory. Rachida Dati his duel against michel barnier will have to resign from the town hall of the 7th century, cumulative mandates obliges, and also explain to the voters why, only five months after her election, she already leaves in campaign for a completely different position. Not easy for the one who accuses Michel Barnier of applying in Paris only to serve “His presidential ambitions”. Would it instrumentalize a national mandate to serve its municipal ambitions? The argument is all found for its detractors.

His duel against michel barnier

“Go very far in the bluff. and make a carpet”

On the face side, she loses. In the best of cases for the right, his defeat does not lead to that of Michel Barnier. In the worst, the dispersion of the voices on the right makes a district called Imperdable to the left. Additionally, In any case, Rachida Dati loses feathers there. Or rather, credibility. Because his duel against michel barnier although it is at this stage. “The best placed to embody alternation” In Paris according to the words of the LR inauguration commission, it was not officially invested by its party, despite the calls of party figures like Valérie Pécresse or Xavier Bertrand on July 28.

« Rachida Dati is the best candidate for Paris but she will not win without LR “. Sublished during the inauguration committee Agnès Evrenès, president of the Paris Federation, according to remarks reported by Le Figaro. A warning that nothing is played? On paper indeed, the candidacy could weigh against it during the municipal inauguration. And even if she becomes the candidate of LR in Paris. nothing indicates that her camp would not make her pay her disobedience by imposing a not very macron-compatible list. Furthermore. how to justify voters the return of a label against which she raised with a crash his duel against michel barnier a few months earlier? As for counting renaissance support as a consolation lot. a strategist of the right sweeps ” In view of the hostility it provokes at home, and the rather center-left coloring of the Parisian staff »From the presidential party.

Still there is a very last scenario: that of the bluff for ” Put pressure on LR for the municipal elections. which would mean that it would not go to the end ”, groped an LR frame joined by us. In other words: the candidacy dati to the legislative is only a way of negotiating a withdrawal under its conditions … at random: the composition of the municipal list? A blackmail pushed to the extreme in a way. “” But she would have gone far in the bluff, and by carpet “, Continues our source. Nothing really new for the mayor of the 7th arrondissement who. his duel against michel barnier in 2011, had already presented himself in dissent against François Fillon in this same 2nd district. Before withdrawing a month before the first round. ” in responsibility ” for not “Not adding the division to the failure by presenting itself in the district where (it is) however legitimate. »» The speech is ready to be recycled by March 2026.