Of
Alessandra Muglia
In her videos the Minister of Culture criticizes the majority. Socialist rival Gregoire accuses: staging. Mayor Hidalgo quips: if convicted you will dress as a prison guard
The French Culture Minister Rachida Dati, who has survived four prime ministers in one year, is in pole position for the most stable seat of mayor of Paris (the mandate is for six years), above all thanks to a series of videos that are becoming popular on social media, almost making us forget the scandal in which she is involved (she is under investigation for corruption, on consultancy for Renault when she was an MEP).
Having left her elegant designer suits in the wardrobe, Sarkozy’s former minister of the seals, now supported not only by the Républicains (LR) but also by Bayrou’s MoDem, now appears in sweatshirt, jeans and sneakers as he goes into bars to talk to people; or you can see it in a white down jacket and gloves meet the Rungis market workers early in the morning: and it doesn’t just shake hands and listen to complaints but helps load the goods and get on the trucks to «deliver to restaurants and shops in Paris and see all the obstacles that delivery drivers face at Rungis». In one of her most viral videos (over 5 million views on X, 4 million on Instagram and almost 2.4 million on TikTok), she is seen at night, wearing a yellow and green garbage collector’s uniform, climb onto the back of a truck and collect rubbish to convey a simple message: «With me, Paris will be clean! Seven days a week, twenty-four hours a day. Parisians are fed up with the filth of their city. They no longer wait for promises, they wait for results.”
Videos with a populist flavor that aim to denounce the alleged shortcomings in Anne Hidalgo’s policiessocialist mayor of the capital since 2014, in matters of mobility, housing, cleanliness, safety… «There are places where the left no longer goes. I go everywhere, every week», he boasts in his flyers and videos, which each time garner hundreds of thousands of views, whether you visit poorly maintained public housing or which enters decisively into the tunnel under Les Halles where the homeless occupy illegally.
The minister’s videos break with convention and contrast with those of her 2020 campaign, which are much more measured: in this street reporter style campaign, Rachida Dati seems to have been inspired by Zohran Mamdanie his innovative, ironic and spontaneous communication which pushed him to win the mayor’s race, as an unknown.
In response, the left is indignant and critical. The socialist candidate Emmanuel Grégoire, who managed to rally the communists and greens behind his candidacy in an unprecedented agreement in the first round, accuses her of “constant excesses”, “pure staging” and “crude demagogy”. There are those who respond with irony, like the communist senator of Paris Ian Brossat: «When Mrs. Dati has finished her TikToks and stopped dressing as a garbage collector, could she please return to the Ministry of Culture to work (a little) and justify her (large) ministerial allowances?», was asked on X on 6 December.
At the Paris City Council, Anne Hidalgo and the representatives of the majority try to fight back by tirelessly reminding everyone that Rachida Dati will have to appear before the criminal court from 16 to 28 September 2026 to answer charges of corruption and influence peddling, and that she risks being banned from office. «It is possible that at the end of this trial you will be convicted, and maybe then you’ll dress up as a little prison guard!», the mayor joked on 16 December.
His other main rival, Pierre-Yves Bournazel, supported by Horizons and Renaissance, she strives to show the same composure: «She has saturated the entire media landscape, she is on social media and on television morning, afternoon and evening, but this has not allowed her to gain a single point in the polls», he observes, citing the barometer published by Le Parisien on December 13, which showed her still leading after the first round, but without any gains. And in second place in the event of a left-wing alliance, formalized on December 17.
December 25, 2025 (changed December 25, 2025 | 7:24 pm)
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