France’s main centre-right party has officially named Culture Minister Rachida Dati as its candidate in the upcoming mayor’s election in Paris, in a bid to win back the French capital from the fading Socialist Party.
In exchange for the full backing of The Republicans, she agreed to withdraw from also running for parliament in a Paris constituency, which would have pitted her against a former prime minister from her party in a vote scheduled for September.
The Republicans said in a statement that they had “unanimously invested” Dati as their mayoral candidate in the March 2026 municipal elections.
The party also said she had agreed to back former prime minister Michel Barnier, who is running in a by-election in a parliamentary district in Paris.
Dati is a member of The Republicans and was justice minister under president Nicolas Sarkozy.
In the 2026 mayoral elections, she will face Emmanuel Grégoire, the deputy to outgoing Socialist Party mayor Anne Hidalgo whom the party nominated in June.
Socialist mayors have sat in Paris city hall since March 2001, but the party has flopped in recent national elections.
Dati said on X she would “work to bring together all the forces of change” in Paris.
