In a Le Monde chronicle, Michel Guerrin examines why Rachida Dati, the French culture minister, uses harsh words toward artists. He argues this approach benefits her Paris mayoral campaign. The roles have reversed: past ministers feared creators, but now artists fear Dati.
Michel Guerrin, Le Monde's editor-in-chief, met Rachida Dati in late September at her office, when she was a fragile resigning minister between François Bayrou's fall and Sébastien Lecornu's appointment. She now joins her fifth government in eighteen months, appearing indestructible despite an odd status where her cultural actions take a backseat.
Her focus includes her view of the cultural milieu, a path toward privatizing public broadcasting, judicial troubles, lawsuits against newspapers while defending free speech, clashes with Les Républicains, and above all her Paris mayoral campaign, which she might run without leaving her ministerial post—a legal but contentious move.
In the past, culture ministers at rue de Valois, overlooking the Palais-Royal, felt inferior to creators. They feared backlash at the Césars, Avignon Festival, intermittent strikes, budget cuts, or mockery by film stars on TV.
Dati reverses the dynamic: she fears neither artists nor many others. They fear her, quietly safeguarding subsidies in tough times. Privately, they voice contempt or hatred, calling her incompetent, demagogic, populist, a liar, or heading toward 'Trumpization.' Guerrin recalls Maurice Pialat's angry words after his 1987 Palme d'Or for Under Satan's Sun: 'If you don't like me, I can tell you I don't like you either.'
The chronicle highlights a tense cultural sector where the minister appears willing to do anything for her political ambitions.