Keeping traditional media at bay, Rachida Dati campaigns almost exclusively on social networks. The videos of the minister candidate for mayor of Paris play on proximity with Parisians. She multiplies her campaign promises there and also ventures into eastern Paris to chase the votes of voters feeling abandoned by the left. The Battle for Paris, episode 3.

Published on: 02/12/2026 - 1:00 p.m. Modified on: 02/12/2026 - 1:02 p.m.

Rachida Dati's campaign is closed to the press and the candidate refuses to debate with her competitors. On the other hand, the Minister of Culture and mayor of the 7th arrondissement does not skimp on the means to exist on social networks and recall the failures of the left, in power in Paris for twenty-five years.

Like what the new mayor of New York, Zohran Mamdani, did in his victorious campaign, Rachida Dati multiplies the videos in which she portrays herself. In the early morning with the garbage collectors, in broad daylight on Place de la République, in the evening among drug addicts in the Halles tunnel or in the company of the homeless in the Beaubourg district, the candidate Les Républicains (LR) supports where Anne Hidalgo's record hurts: on cleanliness, on certain contested ecological and aesthetic choices and on some Parisian neighborhoods where drug trafficking, prostitution, squats and insecurity trouble local residents.

Also read: The battle for Paris: #SaccageParis, an anti-Hidalgo bludgeoning that favors the right

Designed to show the closeness between the candidate and Parisians, including the most deprived, these videos are a hit: 1.2 million views on TikTok for Rachida Dati visiting the Halles tunnel, 2.5 million views for Rachida Dati wearing a fluorescent yellow vest and picking up trash, 3.1 million views for Rachida Dati speaking with homeless people in the Beaubourg district.

“It’s super effective, since everywhere we go, people talk to us about it,” LR senator from Paris Agnès Évren told AFP, for whom these clips allow “to carry a political message” and reach an audience far removed from traditional media.

To display this X content (Twitter), it is necessary to authorize audience measurement and advertising cookies.

Beyond the buzz, the videos of Rachida Dati, who will be tried in September 2026 for corruption and influence peddling, seek to show a Parisian elected official who cares about residents and wants to resolve their problems.

“My campaign is to be able to remind Parisians that a mayor takes care of Parisians and that a mayor responds to the concerns of Parisians,” she says in one of them, promising to continue to “meet Parisians” if she is elected.

Be close and attentive to Parisians

It is again this proximity which was highlighted by Rachida Dati, Tuesday February 10, during the presentation of her program. This was “nourished by our meetings with citizens”, assured the candidate.

During this event - the only one open to the press since the start of his campaign - each theme was introduced by a Parisian who came to talk about their daily life: Yolanda, a volunteer with L'Heure Civique, spoke about cleanliness, Catherine, a resident of the 9th arrondissement, shared her point of view on the greening of public spaces, Frédéric, spokesperson for Collectif 19, spoke about the consequences of the presence of drug addicts in the Rosa Parks district. of the 19th arrondissement.

“This insecurity is linked to the culture of excuses in Paris. It is typically the left which is in security denial,” replied Rachida Dati, criticizing the socialist candidate Emmanuel Grégoire for pretending that the problem does not exist. “Why do we make videos? Because we show Parisian reality,” she added.

Already a candidate in Paris during the 2020 municipal elections, Rachida Dati then led a much more traditional campaign. And if she is banking on the same themes – cleanliness, security, mobility – as six years ago to win, the former Minister of Justice has understood the influence that social networks could have.

Long before Zohran Mamdani, the success of the #SaccageParis movement to denounce the lack of cleanliness in the French capital undoubtedly gave the candidate pause. The effectiveness of this online campaign born in 2021 and castigating the management of Anne Hidalgo has made the municipality evolve on certain choices (see episode 2 of The battle for Paris). Today, Rachida Dati uses the same vocabulary, affirming for example in her video on Place de la République that it “was ransacked” by the outgoing municipal team.

“Demagoguery in its raw state”

And when she is not making trips, without journalists, to voters in right-wing boroughs, the candidate increases the number of filmings on sensitive subjects in the working-class neighborhoods of arrondissements won over to the left, such as the 11th, 18th, 19th or 20th arrondissements. She thus hopes to take advantage of the reform of the voting method in Paris, where voters will now be able to vote directly for their future mayor (see episode 1 of The Battle for Paris).

“Until now, right-wing votes in so-called left-wing districts did not count. But with the reform of the voting method, each ballot will count, so Rachida Dati is right to campaign in eastern Paris, where many voters feel abandoned by the left,” explains to France 24 Pierre Liscia, LR candidate for mayor of the 19th arrondissement.

The former first deputy of Anne Hidalgo (2018-2024) and candidate of the united left outside La France insoumise, Emmanuel Grégoire, denounces for his part "pure staging" and "raw demagoguery", accusing Rachida Dati of exploiting human misery for electoral purposes.

Also read: The battle for Paris: a ballot more open than ever

Especially since the LR candidate seems to promise everything and its opposite. She says she wants to strengthen the cleanliness teams of the City of Paris but wants to privatize waste collection. She promises "social housing for those who work and need it" but announces the end of pre-emptions during the sale of real estate when these are used to create more social housing. She says she wants to maintain the working and middle classes in the capital but intends to relax rent controls.

Finally, she says she wants to straighten out Paris's accounts but intends to arm 5,000 municipal police officers, double the current workforce, implement a plan to completely overhaul after-school activities, undertake the thermal renovation of 10,000 social housing units per year, create care centers to get drug addicts out of their addiction, make all metro stations accessible to disabled people, redo the Place de la République, transform the quays of the Seine into "a large urban heritage park with a revegetation in open ground", renovate municipal swimming pools or even create 2,000 additional spaces in conservatories, all without increasing property tax, by lowering the cost of parking for cars and by returning to free parking for two-wheelers.

No problem, judge Rachida Dati, who should leave the government within a few days. “My program is applicable immediately, I will keep my commitments and Parisians will see it in the first 100 days,” she said Tuesday morning during the presentation of her project.

In Paris, candidates are Pierre-Yves Bournazel (Horizons), Blandine Chauvel (New Anticapitalist Party - Revolutionaries), Sophia Chikirou (La France insoumise), Rachida Dati (Les Républicains), Emmanuel Grégoire (Socialist Party), Sarah Knafo (Reconquête), Thierry Mariani (National Rally), Mahel Pierot-Guimbaud (Workers' Party) and Marielle Saulnier (Workers' Struggle).

Keywords associated with the article

The content you are trying to access does not exist or is no longer available.