PARIS — When Rachida Dati announced her plan to take on Michel Barnier for the right to represent a swath of Paris’ Left Bank in parliament, the French culture minister was sending a message to the former prime minister best summed up by “The Wire’s” Omar Little.
“You come at the king, you best not miss.”
Dati on Monday revealed she would run in the coveted by-election just as the nominating committee of their shared center-right party, Les Républicains, formally approved Barnier as its candidate. Dati had reportedly not submitted her paperwork to Les Républicains and now seems primed to run as a breakaway candidate.
On Tuesday, she appeared to confirm on X she was running to represent “the region I have served for 15 years.”
Dati, a fiery, outspoken figure, has long been a powerful politician in the district, which spans the length of the Seine from the Eiffel Tower to just beyond the Latin Quarter. She serves as local mayor of the Paris 7th arrondissement, where the Eiffel Tower is located.
She was reportedly infuriated by Barnier’s decision to run for the seat on her home turf.
“I’ve never been a bit player, or a pushover,” she said in an interview on French television last week. “I don’t give up and I’m not afraid.”
Insiders had speculated that she never wanted to run in the by-election, but instead was kicking up a fuss to create leverage she could use to force the conservatives into supporting her candidacy in the Paris mayoral elections next year. Dati’s relationship with Les Républicains has been strained since she joined the centrist government of former Prime Minister Gabriel Attal in early 2024.
The current face-off between Dati and Barnier is the latest in a series of running feuds within Les Républicains that have dogged the party since it was ousted from power in 2012. But with the country gearing up for a wide-open presidential election in 2027, party officials will be keen to not let the battle spiral out of control.
“If Dati runs in the legislative election, the constituency could be lost to the left,” feared a Les Républicains official, who was granted anonymity to discuss internal politics. An IFOP poll conducted last week showed Dati and Barnier splitting the conservative vote in the Paris district and running neck-and-neck with the left-wing candidate.
In a statement released on Monday, the conservative nominating committee tried to dial down tensions between the two, approving Barnier’s legislative bid while saluting Dati as “the best placed to represent change” in Paris.
Barnier also tried to appease Dati, writing online that he had “no municipal ambitions.”
Anthony Lattier and Victor Goury-Laffont contributed to this report.
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