When she still hesitated to come to Paris in early 2018, one of her relatives encouraged her: "Go ahead, you will hang the light!" “Bet bet: two years and a investiture later, Rachida Dati is more than ever in the spotlight. Many trips, especially in eastern Paris until then terra incognita of the right and especially polls which now give it second place, behind the socialist mayor Anne Hidalgo and in front of the walker Benjamin Griveaux. And it is a good part of LR which finds the smile whereas there a few months still all thought to have been definitively swept by the macronist wave in the capital.
"We can once again see a possibility," slips Annie Genevard, the president of the party's national council. Today, nobody is saying anymore that it is impossible that Rachida Dati can win. This simple observation already sounds like a small victory, as Paris was a field of ruins for Les Républicains, so Dati cleaved internally. Still targeted by an investigation by the National Financial Prosecutor's Office concerning remuneration perceived as a lawyer for Renault-Nissan - an "attempt to destabilize" she said - Dati is making its way.
"Stop saying it's high in the polls!"
“When I joined her, I thought she would do figuration, recognizes the former mayor of the 16th arrondissement, Claude Goasguen, propelled special advisor. But she is a very good candidate. It has changed considerably. It has found its dimension, it is nature. It represents the opposite of Benjamin Griveaux. "
“The campaign does not start as planned: the En Marche! is very divided between Griveaux and Villani and therefore, we are witnessing a return to the world before, "says the mayor (LR) of the 1st arrondissement, Jean-François Legaret. Hence the interest of Rachida Dati in restoring a good old right-left divide and establishing itself as the natural receptacle of the anti-Hidalgo vote. "The polls mean nothing. But we capitalize on it because we are second, ”recognizes a member of his campaign team.
"But stop saying it is high in the polls!" Fumes an elected LR from the capital. It is around 20%. At the same time in 2014, LR candidate Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet was 35% in the polls by posing, cigarette in the mouth, with clods! A score that hadn't stopped him from losing. It must be said that the voting system in Paris is blurring the cards. To win in the capital, you must not win as many votes as possible at the polls but have the majority of the 163 councilors in Paris. Which are elected by district.
"Mathematically, we know that we cannot win"
What give weight to local situations. In 2019, mayors Florence Berthout (Ve) and Delphine Burkli (IXe) left LR to join Griveaux, weakening the chances of the right. All eyes are currently turning to the 15th arrondissement. Rachida Dati imposed an LR list there against the outgoing mayor… LR Philippe Goujon who refused to make a clear commitment to vote for her at the Paris Council.
Coherent for Rachida Dati but risky because she could lose the 15th, the largest provider of advisers in Paris. “Mathematically, we know that we cannot win. They say it is going up, but there will be fewer advisers from Paris than in 2014, ”alarmed an LR executive.
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Rachida Dati leaves thus weakened even in the traditional strongholds from the right to the West. The LRs will also compete with each other in the first round in the 16th and 8th arrondissements. "We count in the first round and we rally against Hidalgo in the second and third round," reassures a relative of Dati, sketching the possibility of a later alliance with En Marche !. Asked about it by Les Echos on Friday, the candidate did not answer clearly. Leaving the uncertainty hanging while his chances of winning his bet seem slim.
Precision
Since last summer, Rachida Dati no longer responds to requests from the Parisian, whether it be questions about his program or his strategy. Invited on several occasions to express herself in our columns and to present her project in an interview, like her opponents Anne Hidalgo or Benjamin Griveaux, the candidate Les Républicains has, each time, declined the proposals which were presented to her addressed.