Rachida Dati makes surprise return to French cabinet

Rachida Dati, a former minister for the rightwing French president Nicolas Sarkozy, has been appointed as culture minister in a surprise return to government under Emmanuel Macron.

Dati, who is serving as the mayor of Paris’s 7th arrondissement for the rightwing party Les Républicains, was announced as part of a cabinet reshuffle under the new prime minister, Gabriel Attal.

Dati became the first Muslim woman to hold a major government post in 2007 when she was appointed justice minister during the Sarkozy presidency.

She grew up on a low-income estate on the outskirts of the town of Chalons-sur-Saône, in Burgundy.

In 2007, Sarkozy said appointing Dati sent a message “to all the children of France that with merit and effort everything becomes possible”.

In recent years, Dati had become a key figure on the right in Paris and a vocal critic of the Socialist mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo.

More details soon …