Polls show Rachida Dati could reach Paris mayoral runoff despite questions over €420,000 in gifts from executive tied to Russian oligarchs

French Culture Minister Rachida Dati is running to become the mayor of Paris, with the first round of voting set for Mar. 16. According to opinion polls, she is currently in second place, with 26% support. French media have reported that between 2017 and 2023 Dati received gifts worth more than €420,000 from Henri Proglio, a businessman who holds senior positions at several French energy and defense companies while also serving on the board of ABR Management («АБР Менеджмент»), a firm that oversees assets for Russian oligarchs Yury and Mikhail Kovalchuk, brothers whose ties to Putin stretch all the way back to the 1990s. Proglio, who was romantically involved with Dati for several years, paid €12,500 a month to rent the Paris apartment where she lived and continued covering the cost for six months after the couple separated. He continues to earn income from three consulting companies in Russia and regularly travels to the country.

Corruption allegations

Dati has served as France’s culture minister since January 2024. In addition to her cabinet role, she holds municipal posts as mayor of Paris’ 7th arrondissement and is a member of the Paris Council. She previously served as a member of the European Parliament. Since 2021, Dati has been under investigation on suspicion of passive corruption. Prosecutors allege she used her mandate as an EP lawmaker to lobby on behalf of the Renault-Nissan group. From 2010 to 2012, a Dutch subsidiary of Renault-Nissan, Renault-Nissan B.V., paid Dati fees totaling €900,000. Dati has said the payments were compensation for her work as a lawyer and for assisting then-Renault-Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn with the company’s international development.

While European Parliament members are allowed to practice law, they are barred from lobbying. Ghosn, who approved the payments, has been in Lebanon since 2019 and has not left the country due to an Interpol red notice. The Renault-Nissan B.V. case remains under judicial investigation, with hearings in a Paris criminal court scheduled for September 2026.

On Oct. 14, 2025, France’s National Financial Prosecutor’s Office opened a judicial investigation into Dati’s work as a European lawmaker over suspicious payments from French energy company GDF Suez, now known as Engie. In 2010 and 2011, Dati received about €299,000 from GDF Suez under “consulting” contracts while serving in the European Parliament. She was formally placed under investigation on charges of corruption and influence peddling. As part of that case, anti-corruption investigators carried out searches on Dec. 17-18, 2025 at multiple locations: the Culture Ministry, the Paris City Hall of the 7th arrondissement, and at her home.

A third inquiry and gifts from Henri Proglio

For much of her political career, Dati maintained a close relationship with Henri Proglio, a senior executive. They met in the 1990s when he worked at energy company Veolia. Proglio provided significant support to Dati and her relatives. Dati’s sister, Jamila Dati, worked at Veolia from 2001 to 2012 and since 2012 has served as a mission director in the nuclear and thermal power department of France’s state-owned nuclear company EDF. Several media outlets have pointed to a potential conflict of interest, as Proglio held senior management roles at both companies. When Dati gave birth to a daughter in 2009, media speculated that Proglio was the father, though this was never confirmed. The couple separated in the 2010s but resumed their relationship no later than 2017.

In April 2025, the newspaper Libération reported that between 2017 and 2023, Proglio gifted Dati at least 19 luxury items worth a total of €420,000 — watches, bracelets, necklaces and rings from brands including Chopard, Cartier, Bvlgari and Repossi. Aside from the jewelry, from June 2019 through July 2024 Proglio paid for the 225-square-meter (2,420-square-foot) apartment on Rue Cassette in Paris’ upscale 6th arrondissement where Dati lived. Although the couple reportedly separated in January 2024, Proglio continued covering her expenses.

In September 2025, the Paris prosecutor’s office opened a preliminary review after media reports said the jewelry had not been listed in Dati’s asset declaration. That inquiry is ongoing.

Proglio and conflicts of interest

Proglio is a prominent figure in France’s business elite, holding senior roles at numerous energy and defense companies in France and abroad. As of late 2024, he served as a board member of financial firm Natixis SA, honorary chairman of energy giant EDF, a director at property management company Atalian SAS, and a director at Spanish infrastructure company Fomento de Construcciones y Contratas. He is also an independent director and chairman of the audit committee at French aerospace company Dassault Aviation, which supplies Ukraine with Mirage 2000 fighter jets, SAMP/T air defense systems, and FZ275 laser-guided rockets, which are used to counter drones.

The Insider has previously highlighted an acute conflict of interest between Proglio’s work in France’s defense sector and his business ties to Russia. In addition to the roles listed above, Proglio serves as a director of Akkuyu Nuclear JSC, Rosatom’s nuclear power project in Turkey. Proglio and close relatives are also beneficiaries of three Russian consulting firms — Henri Proglio Consulting LLC (ООО «Анри Проглио Консалтинг»), AP Energy Advisory LLC ( ООО «АП Энерджи Эдвайзори») and Mezhproekt LLC (ООО «Межпрожект»). During the first three years of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, these companies generated a combined revenue of more than 633 million rubles ($6.8 million). Proglio continues to travel regularly to Russia and visited Moscow and St. Petersburg in July 2025.

The conflict of interest is most clearly illustrated by Proglio’s position on the board of ABR Management, a joint-stock company created in 2011 with the participation of Yury Kovalchuk and Nikolai Shamalov. The company manages their assets in Bank Rossiya, the insurance company SOGAZ, and the National Media Group (NMG).

Proglio’s role on ABR Management’s board is explicitly listed in Dassault Aviation’s 2024 annual report, which shows that the audit of a major defense contractor to the French Republic is chaired by a senior executive of a firm that was hit by U.S. blocking sanctions in 2016 and manages assets belonging to people in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s inner circle.

Culture minister and Paris mayoral candidate

Dati was born in 1965 into a family headed by a bricklayer of Moroccan origin. She rose rapidly in politics and became the first minister of Arab descent to serve in a French government. In 2002, she became an adviser to Nicolas Sarkozy, working with him on crime-fighting initiatives. In 2007, she served as Sarkozy’s spokeswoman and, after his election as president, was appointed justice minister. After leaving the ministry in 2009, Dati became a member of the European Parliament representing the Ile-de-France region, serving until 2019. She returned to the French government in 2024 as culture minister.

Dati’s campaign in the Paris mayoral race is built around calls for austerity, and her social media posts devote significant attention to the everyday concerns of ordinary Parisians. She is shown visiting low-cost shops and even helping municipal workers collect trash. If elected, she has pledged to curb the growth of the city’s debt and cut spending by between €600 million and €1 billion.

At the same time, Dati ranks third among the wealthiest ministers in the French government. According to her 2024 asset declaration filed with the High Authority for Transparency in Public Life, the total value of her assets is €5.6 million, most of which is held in securities accounts. She also owns a 37-square-meter (400-square-foot) apartment in the Hauts-de-Seine department bordering Paris, purchased in 2007 for €238,650, and holds a 50% usufruct interest in an 88-square-meter (950-square-foot) apartment in the Saone-et-Loire department valued at €88,000. In addition, Dati owns a house and an apartment in Morocco, though their value was not listed in the declaration.

Although Dati holds senior government posts, most of her income comes from legal work. In 2024, she declared total income of €241,164, including €38,710 from her role as mayor of Paris’ 7th arrondissement, €84,907 from her position as culture minister, and €116,762 from her work as a lawyer. Her highest earnings came in 2022, when she reported €2,078,847 in income from her international legal practice. Information about the firm’s specific clients was not disclosed.

Despite Dati’s high net worth, her family has received significant social support from the French state. Her sister obtained social housing in Paris’ 15th arrondissement after receiving a letter of recommendation from the minister.