The French presidency on Thursday named a new culture minister in place of the outspoken Rachida Dati who launched into a “racism” dispute within hours of quitting to campaign to become mayor of Paris.<\/p>\n
Dati was replaced in the sought-after culture post by Catherine Pegard, a former magazine editor and head of Versailles palace. She was one of four ministerial additions named to the government by President Emmanuel Macron’s office after Dati’s resignation late Wednesday.<\/p>\n
The 60-year-old Dati will be the mainstream conservative candidate aiming to become mayor of the French capital in municipal elections in March.<\/p>\n
Launching into the campaign, Dati accused Socialist candidate Emmanuel Gregoire of “social racism” as she refused to take part in a debate before the first round of voting on March 15.<\/p>\n
Dati, whose father was Moroccan and mother Algerian, reacted with fury to a social media post by Gregoire saying that Paris was “threatened” by an “extreme right” alliance, and warning that a “brown wave” could hit the city.<\/p>\n
“Do you find this acceptable when you know my life and my background?” Dati told BFMTV.<\/p>\n
“Mr Gregoire, this is social racism. There’s a glass ceiling in this country when it comes to accessing high-level positions.”<\/p>\n
The “insular left”, she added, “prefer people like me as victims”.<\/p>\n
Gregoire dismissed Dati’s comments as “ridiculous”.<\/p>\n
“We can have debates and confrontations of ideas without resorting to insults,” he argued. Dati’s origins were “a source of pride for our country”, he added.<\/p>\n
While Gregoire leads opinion polls ahead of the election with about 32 percent of the vote, Dati has moved up to about 30 percent in recent weeks.<\/p>\n
She has launched into the current socialist mayoral administration over security, promising to put up “8,000 video cameras in the 7,000 streets of Paris”, saying that there were sexual assaults and rapes “every day”.<\/p>\n
Dati has quit a government that is struggling in the polls.<\/p>\n
Amongst other cabinet changes, the presidency said former minister Sabrina Roubache would return to the government as a deputy education minister, government spokeswoman Maud Bregeon becomes a deputy energy minister and lawmaker Camille Galliard-Minier will be a deputy minister for people with disabilites.<\/p>\n
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