Rachida Dati promises to defend French cultural exception

Rachida Dati, new Minister of Culture and great star of the reconstruction of the French President’s government, Emmanuel Macron, He promised to protect the French cultural exception.

“I will always be there to defend that cultural exception,” in the tradition of all previous ministers in that department, who “have ensured that culture is not a product like any other,” Dati said in a transfer of powers speech. -Highlighted with the outgoing minister, Reema Abdul-Malak.

In the executive reshuffle announced yesterday, Dati said he was “very proud, but also very excited” to be chosen for the post, and stressed that it was within the “revival of France” that Macron said he wanted in his final. Wanted speech of the year, “Culture plays a fundamental role. “It is essential – said the Conservative politician – that it be accessible to everyone and especially to young people.”

The new minister made indirect mention of his immigrant origins (his family came from Morocco). Dati said this is something she shares with Abdul-Malak (who was born in Lebanon and whose family took refuge in France when she was a child) and stressed that she knows That “what I owe to French culture.”

In particular, she called for “freedom of thought, especially for women, freedom of speech, especially for women, freedom of creation, especially for women, freedom of dissemination, especially for women”. Talked about.

The new head of culture announced that she would work to emphasize “the importance of our language, its extraordinary projection into the world”.

Dati, who is 58, was until now leader of the right-wing opposition in the Paris City Council (ruled by socialist Anne Hidalgo) and mayor of the city’s VII district since 2008.

they already had government experience Minister of Justice between 2007 and 2009 He was also a European Deputy during the tenure of President Nicolas Sarkozy for a further two terms (2009–2019).

Abdul-Malak’s departure was considered a definite achievement because in a television interview with Macron the president scolded him for taking the initiative to start a process. Withdraw Gerard Depardieu’s Legion of HonorThe highest public decoration.

Behind this process paralyzed by the head of state are new revelations about the abusive behavior towards some women (with repeated obscene comments of a sexual nature) of the French actor, who is also accused of rape and that Has also been the subject of cases. Complaints of sexual harassment in recent months.

Today, in his farewell speech at the ministry, Abdul-Malak assured that for nine months he has been in the department “Was set free.”