This Thursday the Police searched the home of the French Minister of Culture and candidate conservative to the Mayor of Paris by 2026, Rachida Datawithin the framework of one of the investigations by alleged corruption open against her.
The raid took place at his home in the French capital and also at the Ministry of Culture and in the City Hall of the 7th arrondissement of Pariswhich she has also led since 2008, as detailed by the Prosecutor’s Office in a statement.
To the minister, who was also Nicolas Sarkozy’s Justice Minister from 2007 to 2009, a judicial investigation was opened last October for possible corruption crimes active and passive, influence peddling, embezzlement of public fundss, reception and money laundering related to the exercise of mandate of Member of the European Parliament.
The objective of the investigations is to seek evidence about whether Dati received money in 2010 and 2011 from the energy company GDF Suez, later renamed Engie, while she was a member of the European Parliament, as detailed by France Télévisions.
Dati, who denies the accusationspracticed as a lawyer between 2009 and 2019 in parallel with her public positions and is suspected of receiving payments from GDF Suez to defend its interests in the European Parliament.
This case came to light after the television program Further investigatione, from France Télévisions, and the weekly The New Obs will be revealed last June in turn GDF Suez had paid the same amount in 2010 and 2011.
Dati’s judicial fronts
They are not the only fronts that the minister has open, who is already promoting her candidacy to replace the socialist. Anne Hidalgo ahead of the municipal elections to be held in March 2026.
The most serious is the one will take her to trial in September 2026related to 900,000 euros that Dati received between 2010 and 2012 from a subsidiary of the Renault-Nissan alliance (RNBV), also while she was a European deputy.
She is accused of passive corruption, influence peddling, receiving abuse of power and receiving abuse of trust because the investigation indicates that the payments did not correspond to real legal consulting work, but rather covered up lobbying activities in the European Parliament.
There is also an open investigation for 19 luxury jewels not declared to the High Authority for the Transparency of Public Life (HATVP), whose value is estimated between 420,000 and 600,000 euros.