The race for the Paris mayoralty has sharpened and Rachida Dati has moved to clear the air about both her record and her rhetoric. On March 12, 2026 she announced a complaint against rival Emmanuel Grégoire over a campaign clip she described as “outrageous, false and defamatory”, and she has already lodged legal action against a media outlet for attributing a phrase to her that she says she never used. Beyond the lawsuits, Ms. Dati has taken time in interviews to restate her views on LGBT rights, public safety and drug policy, insisting that defense of individual liberty remains central to her platform.
Personal background and principles on LGBT rights
Ms. Dati frames her positions through the lens of personal liberty and life experience: she stresses that she refuses to see political life through competing identity groups and invokes her own family history to explain her stance on sexual freedom. She says she knows what it means to suffer coercive practices such as forced marriages or invasive medical tests, and that these experiences inform her commitment to defending individual freedoms. On the legislative landscape she has voiced concern about questions of filiation when discussing the Taubira law and the opening of PMA. Her priority, she says, is that children have access to documented origins and legal certainty, regardless of their parents’ situation.
Contested measures: conversion therapies, GPA and gender change
Ms. Dati emphasizes a nuanced approach to divisive topics. She declared herself firmly against conversion therapies, explaining that an abstention recorded in the European Parliament was a technical group decision tied to competencies rather than a political endorsement. On the question of GPA (surrogacy), she remains opposed, arguing that its legalization would pose risks to women’s bodily autonomy even as she insists on fighting discrimination and defending equal rights. Regarding legal changes to gender markers, she proposes a civic procedure that could be handled at town halls rather than courts, with safeguards: a defined protocol, legal clarity and a minimum age established with medical and legal experts to secure the person’s rights.
Public safety, targeted violence and municipal tools
Addressing the rise in homophobic assaults, Ms. Dati lays out a municipal security plan built around comprehensive vidéoprotection coverage and a reinforced police municipale on duty day and night. She proposes that this force be trained, equipped and authorized to assist the national police, and she plans to use her role as chair of local security institutions to press the prosecutor for a firm policy applying aggravated circumstances to anti-LGBTQ crimes. The candidate argues that these measures would create a deterrent effect while ensuring faster responses and better protection for vulnerable Parisian communities.
Education, drug policy and cultural preservation
On school matters, Ms. Dati supports the presence of affective and sexual education specialists in classrooms, arguing that schools can provide a framework for consent education, body awareness and adolescent mental health. When it comes to drugs, she endorses harm reduction in the form of clean equipment distribution and strong social support, but favors pathways to treatment and detoxification over the current model of consumption rooms as they exist today. She opposes a blanket “Good Samaritan” immunity that would prevent police intervention in drug-related emergencies, stressing that law enforcement has a duty to protect, while acknowledging that saving lives must be the immediate priority when an overdose occurs. Culturally, she defends cabaret and drag as part of Parisian life, says she relaunched the project for the Archives LGBTQI+, and warns against the tourist-driven “Disneyfication” of historic neighborhoods like the Marais.
Campaign climate and legal disputes
In the electoral math Ms. Dati faces a fragmented field. Polling published for national media on March 12, 2026 put a united left list led by Emmanuel Grégoire at about 32%, with Ms. Dati on roughly 26.5% and other lists—Sarah Knafo, Pierre-Yves Bournazel and Sophia Chikirou—hovering near thresholds that could reshape runoff dynamics. She has ruled out alliances with the far right and specifically rejected collaboration with parties aligned with Éric Zemmour. On the campaign front she condemned a dystopian video posted by Mr. Grégoire that imagines negative consequences of a Dati victory and references her pending legal challenges; she says that clip, and other misattributions in the press, crossed a line and justified the complaints she filed.
What this means for voters
Ms. Dati’s interventions mix legal action with policy clarifications intended to reassure both traditional conservatives and more socially liberal voters who prioritize safety and neighborhood life. By reasserting support for individual liberties while opposing measures like legal surrogacy, and by promising strengthened municipal tools against violence, she is seeking to reframe the debate less as identity politics and more as practical governance—even as the campaign heats up and legal skirmishes become part of the narrative.