Paris (France) (AFP) – Rachida Dati, LR and MoDem candidate for Paris town hall, announced on Wednesday that she was filing a complaint against Le Nouvel Obs for attributing "false and shameful" remarks to her about a "gay conspiracy" to make her lose.
Published on: 02/18/2026 - 4:49 p.m.
According to the weekly, the current Minister of Culture said in front of several interlocutors that "the homosexual club" wanted to "make her lose" the election of March 15 and 22 and invoked a "gay conspiracy".
Le Nouvel Obs claims that these remarks were directed against his competitor Pierre-Yves Bournazel, Horizons candidate for City Hall, as well as Gabriel Attal, the boss of Renaissance who supports this candidacy.
“The comments attributed to me by Le Nouvel Obs are lies and shameful. It goes too far! Let those who peddle these accusations do so openly because it is false. I am filing a complaint for defamation,” reacted Rachida Dati on X.
“This is how you would talk about your competitors at Paris town hall?” asked Pierre-Yves Bournazel, also on X.
“Suggesting that a +homosexual club+ would act in the shadows to politically harm the personal ambitions of the Minister of Culture is part of a conspiratorial imagination and contributes to the trivialization of hate speech”, reacted in a press release Emmanuel Grégoire, candidate of the united left without LFI at City Hall.
“Rachida Dati must explain herself clearly and unambiguously. We cannot claim to bring Parisians together while spreading stereotypes and insinuations which stigmatize some of them,” believes the socialist deputy.
“New shipwreck for Rachida Dati,” said outgoing socialist mayor Anne Hidalgo on Instagram.
In a letter on National Assembly letterhead addressed to Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu, Emmanuel Grégoire calls on the latter to find out "the follow-up" he intends to give to this affair.
“It has, in doing so, accredited the idea of a cabal based on the real or supposed sexual orientation of public and political officials, implicitly designating a category of our fellow citizens as structured in a network of hidden influence,” he underlines in this letter sent to the press.
“It is about the credibility of public speech, the clarity of the republican line that you embody, and the message addressed to all those who could feel hurt or called into question today by such declarations,” continues Mr. Grégoire.
“I therefore ask you to please clarify whether a public apology or any other measure consistent with the government's requirement for exemplary behavior will be required of the minister,” he adds as a reshuffle seems imminent.
© 2026 AFP
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