A "role to play" for the right in 2022? In an interview with Le Parisien - Today in France, Rachida Dati evokes "her desire" and "her political vision", in which "many subjects", she says, "go beyond Paris".
The mayor of the 7th arrondissement of Paris, an unsuccessful candidate for the Hôtel de Ville, attacks Anne Hidalgo and her “municipal bureaucracy” which she accuses of serving “other ambitions” than improving the lives of Parisians. She also criticizes the orientations of the new government and repeats that Gerald Darmanin "cannot stay" at the Ministry of the Interior.
What role do you intend to play at the Council of Paris during this new Hidalgo mandate?
RACHIDA DATI. We will continue to defend the interests of Parisians by leading a demanding opposition and I will not hesitate to sound the alarm if necessary. The Paris advisers in my group will tirelessly continue to go into the field to be the spokespersons of the Parisians on the Paris Council. Anne Hidalgo announced new taxes, contrary to her campaign commitments, to hide erratic management, already denounced by the regional chamber of accounts since 2016. This demonstrates the opacity of the use of public funds to hide deficits of the City. We will therefore ask the controlling body again to help us end it.
She nevertheless surrounded herself well with 37 assistants ...
This represents the equivalent of 40 ministerial cabinets, because we must add three delegated advisers to the 37 assistants. Besides the mismanagement in terms of public finances, it is quite clear that this Mexican army was constituted for other political projects, which have nothing to do with the management of Paris. No doubt she is thinking of the presidential election, again, contrary to her campaign commitments.
You accuse him of using the means of the City to prepare a presidential campaign?
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In any case, I observe that the titles of the delegations of the deputies do not correspond to the competences of a municipality or a department. Imagine if the neighboring departments did the same? This municipal bureaucracy is not intended to improve the lives of Parisians but to serve other ambitions.
Can't we be presidential and mayor of Paris?
Yes, but then, voters should not be fooled.
Participation in Paris was very low. How to resolve the democratic crisis?
We have to ensure that people are properly registered on the electoral rolls and tell them that they have to go and vote. Provided there are no legal obstacles, I am in favor of compulsory voting. It would have the virtue of forcing politicians to consider all voters, and not just those who are immediately acquired by them. The other virtue would be to force elected officials to debate all substantive issues and answer all questions, which Anne Hidalgo refused to do during the campaign.
Could you have joined the Castex government?
Even if I had been offered, I would not have gone. Everything is not possible in politics. What elicits support is clarity on values. Even those who did not agree with me during the campaign in Paris said that I was in the clarity of my convictions and the coherence of my project.
And Jean Castex, it is not clear?
Regarding Jean Castex, I have not heard any proposal that can meet the expectations of the French and, in particular, the middle and lower classes. The major problem today is security. For this, we need a Minister of the Interior respected by the French and the police. The reverse was chosen!
Is the Prime Minister not a man of the field?
Jean Castex has been in the senior civil service for a very long time. For a very long time, the positions he occupies attest that he is far from being a simple local elected representative.
What do you think of the proposal of the new Minister of Justice Eric Dupond-Moretti to militarily supervise young delinquents?
Reintegrating juvenile offenders is a profession and an expertise. It is not that of the army. Through this proposal, what image do we give of the soldiers of France? For juvenile offenders, there are structures and penal responses to be developed, as I did as a Minister of Justice, with penal establishments for minors, which include compulsory training and activities to prevent any recidivism!
Is the Keeper of the Seals right in wanting to implement a system of judicial accountability?
For that, the Constitution would have to be amended. In less than600 days, it seems difficult. Today, the urgency is to define a clear penal policy to put an end to the spiral of increasing violence and insecurity and to put in place the means to enforce the sentences handed down.
Should we review the existence of the National Financial Prosecutor's Office (PNF)?
I was shocked by what we learned recently, especially concerning the pressures allegedly suffered by the former financial prosecutor Eliane Houlette (Editor's note: in the Penelopegate case, concerning François Fillon) . We must know the reasons for this dysfunction and take sanctions accordingly, if it appears that there has been an instrumentalisation of justice for political ends. How do you want to restore confidence in the judiciary if there are suspicions of this nature on certain magistrates?
Eric Dupond-Moretti says he is "feminist". Are you convinced?
I do not know him of sexist behavior. His comments in the past are no doubt questionable, but I do not want to hold him against his intentions. I think that any violence against women, whatever its nature, must give rise to an arrest and a deferral. It should not be just a reminder of the law. So I'm waiting to see his criminal policy. It is not enough to walk around the police stations to say bravo to the police, as the Minister of the Interior does without any global vision of what a security policy should be.
You mention Gérald Darmanin. You have stepped up to the plate concerning him. Are you asking him to go?
I think he can't stay. The Ministry of the Interior is that of victim protection. However, in the open case, there will be procedural acts, confrontations, hearings, even searches, which are carried out with the police. Deporting yourself when you are a minister is not possible. It is a serious political fault of Emmanuel Macron to have appointed him Minister of the Interior, it will be as long as he remains so. This is not to question the presumption of innocence. But the behaviors recognized by Gerald Darmanin, without even apologizing, are not acceptable and are detrimental to the dignity of women. He is a bad example and his status as Minister of the Interior makes it difficult to implement justice.
Are you saying that the cause of women, the “great cause” of the five-year term, is a blast?
It is more serious than that. Do you think that now women will dare to denounce what they are going through? This appointment to the Ministry of the Interior is a message of dissuasion. Because it is a regression compared to everything that has been done in recent years and as I did as Keeper of the Seals to allow women to free their word so as not to be afraid to denounce this type of 'reached by men of power.
Jean Castex announced a law for the start of the school year to fight separatism. A good idea ?
Separatism is a new word, not to say communitarianism, radicalization… What will this law contain? That we must respect the law! Because gender equality is already in the law. Do not prohibit a business for women, it is already in the law. Separatism is the rejection of the Republic and its values. The 1905 law includes sanctions against anyone imposing acts in the name of a religion or ideology. So let's apply the law. But we let it happen, with the complicity of certain elected officials who made alliances with separatists. I also asked the Paris prosecutor and the PNF to open an investigation, following the book "The mayor and the barbarians " among some elected Ile) . The PNF and the Paris prosecutor's office have acknowledged receipt of my report.
So, no need for a law?
What is needed is a clear political will and say stop to communitarianism, without concession and without compromise. Since 2017, nothing has been done against this phenomenon, and it has worsened. We must take strong measures. The employment and promotion policy for young people is a tool for integration. We must restore boarding schools of excellence, merit scholarships, studies directed from the last section of kindergarten. All of this has been suppressed by the left. Introduce apprenticeship at 14, with awareness of a trade. In higher education, bridges must be developed between so-called elitist training and general, technical or professional training.
For 2022, can the right still win?
First, we have to recreate a dynamic. We did mimicry of the left, we saw the result, and there, we want to mimic Macron, it will be worse. However, we have an electorate, an expectation on the part of the French, as the exasperation vis-à-vis the policies pursued is strong. With each election, the right is consolidated on the ground. The right can respond to this exasperation with a project dynamic.
How do you recreate a dynamic?
We must return to proximity. Instead of listening to Mr. Macron, we must listen to the French. When I started in Paris, I listened to my convictions, I listened to Parisians.
Your method in Paris would be good for the right at the national level?
My method is to make proposals based on this proximity and listening to the French. You have to know how to renew yourself to be more in tune with the reality experienced by the French. I like the contact with people, I like being able to find solutions to the problems they put to me. This method can bear fruit at the national level.
Some think that Edouard Philippe could be the recourse of the Republicans ...
It seems to me that it has already been forgotten. Its legitimacy was not the product of history, but was strictly linked to the circumstances and the will of the President of the Republic. Once he's no longer Prime Minister, what's left?
And François Baroin?
I am going to take a quote from Yasmina Reza (“Dawn in the evening or at night”, an account of Nicolas Sarkozy's campaign in 2007): “Wait. But wait for what? The French are tired of waiting. They have emergencies and we cannot respond to emergencies by explaining that we still have to wait.
So you have a role to play for the right in 2022?
I am elected, committed, so I have a role to play. I like the political commitment, and when the actions bear. I have a desire, a vision. Otherwise, I would not have embodied it in Paris and, in my vision, there are many subjects that go beyond Paris. I have plans.
Will you be a candidate for 2022?
It will be up to my political family to choose a candidate. There is no such thing as a providential man or woman. Politics is a project dynamic, a desire, a will. Like all those who care about my country, I will participate in this major commitment.