French police have raided the home and offices of culture minister Rachida Dati as part of a corruption probe relating to her time in European Parliament.
The National Financial Prosecutor’s Office said the raids were linked to an investigation into "active and passive corruption, influence peddling, embezzlement of public funds, concealment and laundering” in connection with Ms Rachida Dati's mandate as a Member of the European Parliament.
She is accused of accepting nearly €300,000 (£263,000) in payments from energy group GDF Suez without declaring them in 2010 and 2011, while she was a member of the European Parliament with the right-wing Republicans.
It comes at a critical time during the Paris mayoral campaign in 2026, with Ms Dati, a major figure in Emmanuel Macron’s government, seen as a leading candidate to take the reigns in the capital.
Allegations that she was lobbying on behalf of GDF Suez were first made more than a decade ago.
Ms Dati has previously denied wrongdoing, but neither she nor her lawyers could be reached for comment after the raids.
French government spokesperson Maud Bregeon said in the wake of the raids that Ms Dati has “every right to be in government”.
"Rachida Dati has always proclaimed her innocence and Rachida Dati is obviously presumed innocent (...) There is no issue," she said on RTL.
Mr Macron has also given his steadfast support to Ms Dati, describing her as “unsinkable” earlier in the year in the face of other legal cases.
In one of the separate cases, French judges in July ordered that Ms Dati and former automobile executive Carlos Ghosn stand trial for alleged corruption and abuse of power in a case focusing on consulting fees, a judicial source said.
She has denied irregularities in the fees she received during that time, and Ghosn, who fled Japan in late 2019 aboard a private jet to Lebanon, has denied allegations of misconduct against him.
Ms Dati will hope her legal woes can be brushed to one side by March, when she hopes to become the Paris’ second female mayor in a row by succeeding Socialist Anne Hidalgo, 66.
She has led some polls and been presented as the clearest challenger to the left-wing options on the ballot. An IPSOS poll for Le Parisien puts MS Dati on 27 per cent of the first round votes, seven points ahead of Emmanuel Grégoire, candidate for the Socialist Party.
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