Rachida Dati: one hundred days of Culture on the credo of anti-elitism

Her appointment to Culture was surprising and, a hundred days later, Rachida Dati wants to continue to amaze. Between glances at hip-hop and ode to “rurality”, the minister takes the splits to get out of “the middle class” and launches a perilous reform of public broadcasting.

In the Skyrock show Planète rap as in the Cité de l'accordéon which she inaugurated in Corrèze, the former Minister of Justice of Nicolas Sarkozy hammers home the same credo: culture for all. “All French people (...) can be cultural actors,” she declared at the end of January. All those who preceded her on rue de Valois had the same ambition but Rachida Dati assures that her combativeness will make the difference. “Everyone knows that I like to fight,” she said when taking office on January 12, initially “taken aback” that Emmanuel Macron had offered her the position.

Having fallen out of favor at the Élysée, her predecessor Rima Abdul Malak was ousted to make way for this familiar face of politics and TV shows, a former magistrate who became mayor of the very chic 7th arrondissement of Paris after growing up in a public housing project. . “Where it is very strong is on the meritocracy side. She doesn’t need to talk about it, she embodies it,” said a minister at the beginning of February. The Parisian councilor first went where he was least expected by launching the “rural spring”, a national consultation to “open up” the cultural offer. “It made everyone smile who imagined me not crossing the ring road,” she slipped.

In small steps, the minister has deepened this anti-elitist furrow, promising libraries in public housing or the expansion of the Culture Pass and giving pledges to hip-hop. “You are popular culture,” she said in the DVM show, a Twitch show popular with rappers. At the same time, she is planning a tribute to the composer Pierre Boulez in 2025.

“She is there to move the lines and she is doing it,” greets Laurent Lafon, centrist president of the Senate culture committee, to AFP. Others are more reserved. “It’s communication, not culture. Communication is instantaneous; culture is depth, the call to open the mind,” Laure Adler, former boss of France Culture and left-wing figure, told AFP, who recognizes in the minister “a capacity not to be afraid of anything.”

His activism, however, did not make it possible to protect the Culture budget, cut by 204 million euros as part of the government savings plan of 10 billion and after several years of increases. To cushion the shock, Rachida Dati drew on the ministry's reserves and ensured that “no programming” should be “called into question”. But the sector, already weakened by inflation, is on edge. “The situation is catastrophic,” Nicolas Dubourg, from the Syndeac performing arts company union, told AFP. “Everything is decreasing: the number of curtain raisers, the money invested in productions and the number of hours worked. The sector is shrinking. “Instead of tackling these problems head on, the minister cites evidence on the cultural policy that produces community. It’s posturing,” says Jean-François Marguerin, administrator at the Ministry of Culture during Jack Lang’s time.

Rachida Dati opened another burning front by announcing a project to regroup France Télévisions and Radio France under “single governance”. Her five predecessors dismissed the idea, Laure Adler speaks of a “catastrophe”, but Senator Laurent Lafon welcomes “very rapid” progress.

Also read: Delphine Ernotte at Le Figaro: “The public broadcasting merger project is the choice of responsibility”

However, nothing will be acquired for the minister in Parliament, where her former LR party should not give her any gifts. Recently, the hostility of the right led it to postpone the examination of the bill allowing the restitution of property plundered during colonization, another project in progress for the one which has also angered the world of publishing by experimenting television advertising for books.

Ranked among the most popular ministers, Rachida Dati also keeps an eye on her personal future. Shortly after her appointment, she confirmed her intention to run for mayor of Paris in 2026, raising questions about the duration of her ministerial lease. Also on his agenda is his indictment for passive corruption in the Renault-Nissan affair. “The question is not 'were the first 100 days good?' but “will the next 100 be?”, estimates Nicolas Dubourg.