French culture minister and Paris mayoral candidate Rachida Dati will stand trial on corruption charges, French media reported on Wednesday.
A minister in Emmanuel Macron’s government and tipped to become mayor of Paris in March 2026, Dati is suspected of receiving €900,000 in fees between 2010 and 2012 for lobbying on behalf of the Renault-Nissan group in the European Parliament, of which she was a member.
Rachida Dati’s status as an elected representative does not prevent her from practising law, and she has always maintained that these were consulting services provided under a fee agreement. However, judges suspect that she did not actually perform any work.
The Renault-Nissan automotive alliance hired Rachida Dati as a consultant after she left her post as Minister of Justice in 2009 to run in the European elections.
In November 2024, the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF) requested that Rachida Dati and former Renault-Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn appear in court as part of a corruption investigation launched in 2019.
Rachida Dati allegedly defended the interests of the French manufacturer in the European Parliament, which, according to investigators, influenced the outcome of votes on a number of laws. Both defendants deny the charges.
Carlos Ghosn, who has French, Lebanese and Brazilian citizenship, has not left Lebanon since 2019 due to an Interpol warrant issued by Japan. Tokyo was investigating him for “embezzlement” and “concealment of income,” but he fled the country by hiding in a suitcase.
The first hearing in the case is scheduled for September 29.
Dati was unexpectedly appointed Minister of Culture in January 2024 as part of a series of government reshuffles. Since then, a number of media outlets have reported on the existence of a “pact” between the head of state and a senior figure in the Republican Party.
In exchange, Rachida Dati was allegedly promised the mayor’s seat in the Paris municipal elections in March, which is denied by all parties involved.
According to Le Figaro and RTL, citing a source in the Élysée Palace, the president “took note” of the minister’s referral to court, stating that at this stage it was not a conviction and that Rachida Dati “continues to work in the government.”
“I am not going to give up anything,” the culture minister herself responded to the news. She ruled out the possibility of her resignation, stating that she had “not yet been found guilty.”
