"Have you harassed your colleagues?": Rachida Dati's bulldozer style as a defense system

Is attack the best defense? Questioned on France 5 this Wednesday evening about 299,000 euros in fees from GDF-Suez , which Rachida Dati allegedly received when she was a Member of the European Parliament without declaring its origin to the European Parliament, the now Minister of Culture responded sharply to the journalists of the program C à vous.

After refuting the facts revealed by France 2 in Complément d'enquête and Le Nouvel Obs , Nicolas Sarkozy's former minister counter-attacked by referring to a Mediapart article from last February. The media outlet described Patrick Cohen's "aggressive human management" when he hosted the France Inter morning show between 2010 and 2017.

"Mr. Cohen, did you harass your colleagues? Is that true, Mr. Cohen?" the minister inveighed, to the journalist's surprise.

"You could also be subject to this offense (of harassment). All I would have to do is write an Article 40 report following this Mediapart article. I can take the matter to court," she insisted, referring to this article of the penal code which allows an elected official or civil servant to report to the courts offenses of which they become aware in the course of their duties.

Interrupted by Anne-Élisabeth Lemoine , Rachida Dati changes target, this time addressing the presenter of the show.

"Similarly, it was said that the atmosphere at C à vous is terrible, that you cry all day, that everyone is blamed." "No, that's not true," Anne-Élisabeth Lemoine retorts.

Following this episode, France Télévisions management offered "its full support to the C à vous teams and all of its journalists." "Personal accusations against journalists are unacceptable," the channel insisted.

Currently under investigation for "passive corruption" and "passive influence peddling by a person holding a public elective mandate" in the investigation opened against the former CEO of the Renault Nissan alliance, Carlos Ghosn, Nicolas Sarkozy's former Minister of Justice has been accustomed to being very offensive since the beginning of her political career, even going so far as to personally attack those she talks to.

Example with a text message sent to Brice Hortefeux in 2013. While the former Minister of the Interior and Rachida Dati have had a stormy relationship for years, Mediapart reveals one of his text messages with an incendiary tone addressed to his former colleague.

"Hi fascist," it reads, before calling him a "type of thug" and a "lost minister."

The LR representative then ordered her to "leave him alone" or threatened to reveal everything she knew about "the cash" received "to organize meetings with Sarkozy."

Rachida Dati has always been open about her heated exchanges with him, even going so far as to recount in the columns of Le Monde how she had "punched him in the face" in an elevator in 2017.

Another episode with Agnès Buzyn when the former Minister of Health crossed swords with Rachida Dati during the municipal elections in Paris as the Renaissance candidate.

Last March, when asked about the very likely candidacy of the Minister of Culture for the capital next March , Agnès Buzyn did not pretend . "I experienced the exchanges with Ms. Dati as a candidate and I found that they were too virulent. Today, that is not my way of doing politics," she explained on Radio J.

It must be said that a televised debate organized by France 2 at the end of the municipal campaign for Paris in June 2020 in the midst of a pandemic left him with bad memories .

"A little respect, Ms. Buzyn," Rachida Dati had urged her. "You want to talk about Covid? Can we talk about the complaints filed against you?" before mentioning the thousands of deaths from the epidemic, victims of "her lies."

In an issue of Complément d'enquête broadcast at the beginning of June on France 2, Agnès Buzyn also mentioned text messages with a "violent tone" sent by Rachida Dati in which she allegedly promised to "unleash the dogs" and "spoil her campaign".

Last April, the tone was raised in the National Assembly. In the middle of a committee debate on the reform of public broadcasting, which the Minister of Culture is championing, she was accused of having "disrespected" a civil servant from the Palais-Bourbon who was "taken to task," as explained by the president of the Cultural Affairs Committee, Fatiha Keloua Hachi (PS).

The Socialist representative had asked Rachida Dati to "acknowledge her behavior and apologize to the committee."

"I saw press releases" saying "that there had been an attack, that there had been threats, that there had been insults. They never existed," Rachida Dati insisted in response, admitting at most to a "somewhat sharp response."

Is this a consequence of Rachida Dati's style? Parisian elected officials, whether from the right or Macron's party, are rare in officially supporting her candidacy for the Paris municipal elections next March. When contacted, Rachida Dati's office did not respond.