Rachida Dati

Rachida Dati
Minister of Justice of France
Incumbent
Assumed office 2007
President	Nicolas Sarkozy
Prime Minister	Francois Fillon
Preceded by	Pascal Clément
Personal details
Born	(1965-11-27) November 27, 1965 Saint-Rémy, Burgundy, France
Nationality	French
Political party	UMP

Rachida Dati (born 27 November 1965) is a French politician. She holds two nationalities, French and Moroccan (French by jus soli and Moroccan by jus sanguinis) – although she calls herself "a French woman of French origins". She was a spokeswoman for French presidential candidate Nicolas Sarkozy in the election of 2007. Sarkozy appointed her Minister of Justice on 18 May 2007.

Dati is the first woman from a non-European immigrant background to occupy a key ministerial position in the French Cabinet.

She was elected mayor of the 7th arrondissement of Paris on 29 March 2008.

Biography

Born in Saint-Rémy, Burgundy, to a Moroccan father, a bricklayer, and an Algerian mother, Rachida Dati is the second child of a family of 12. She spent her childhood in Chalon-sur-Saône in Burgundy.

After attending Catholic school, she began work at 16 as a paramedical assistant. She then worked for three years as an accountant at Elf Aquitaine while continuing her studies in economics and business management.

After meeting Jean-Luc Lagardère in 1990, she entered the audit management team of Matra Nortel communication. She later spent a year in London at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, in the records management and archiving department. In 1994, she was an auditing supervisor and secretary-general of the bureau of urban development studies at Suez (then Lyonnaise des Eaux). From 1995 to 1997, she worked as a technical advisor at the legal management division of the Ministry of Education.

In 1997, she was admitted to the École nationale de la magistrature, a public educational institution which offers courses necessary to become a magistrate. Upon leaving in 1999, she became a legal auditor at the Bobigny tribunal de grande instance (high court).

She went on to become judge for collective procedures at the tribunal de grande instance in Péronne and eventually an assistant to the attorney general of the Évry tribunal.

In 2002, she became Nicolas Sarkozy's advisor, working for him on an anti-delinquency project. In 2006, she joined the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) party. On 14 January 2007, she was named spokeswoman for Sarkozy on the day he was chosen as UMP candidate for the presidential elections of April 2007.

After Sarkozy's victory on 6 May 2007, she was appointed Minister of Justice. Her first changes were received coldly by professionals, with public demonstrations.

Dati has been criticized by the satirical weekly Le Canard enchaîné for her methods (perceived as rushed and uninsightful) and her demeanour (seen as excessively authoritarian), and for her alleged tendency to show off in costly clothes, mostly Christian Dior.

Pregnancy

In September 2008, Dati announced that she was pregnant and would be a single mother. She revealed her pregnancy to a group of reporters who questioned her about mounting rumours. "I want to remain careful, because . . . I am still in the risky stage. I am 42," she was quoted as saying.

Diplomas

• Maîtrise en sciences économiques (4-year French degree in economics)
• Maîtrise en droit public (public law by VAE (Validation des Acquis de l'Experience))

External links

• Template:Fr*Rachida Dati-Xavier Bertrand : les deux voix de Sarkozy, Libération, 18 January 2007
• Template:Fr* Rachida Dati La Beurgeoise, La Beurgeoisie, 10 June 2008

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