PARIS: French police on Thursday searched the homes of Culture Minister Rachida Dati, as well as the ministry and the Paris town hall she presides over, as part of a corruption probe, prosecutors said.
The police raid comes as Dati, who heads the town hall in the seventh district of Paris, is campaigning to be elected mayor of the French capital next year.
Dati, 60, has been accused of accepting nearly 300,000 euros ($343,000) in undeclared payments from major energy group GDF Suez while a member of the European parliament between 2010 and 2011. She has denied any wrongdoing.
The national financial prosecutor’s office on Thursday said the raids came after it had opened an investigation on October 14 into Dati over possible corruption, influence peddling and embezzlement of public funds.
Dati held a seat in the European parliament from 2009 to 2019 on behalf of France’s main right-wing party, and has been repeatedly accused of influence peddling.
Accusations that she was lobbying on behalf of GDF Suez first emerged in French media reports in 2013 and the European parliament’s ethics committee questioned her.
French investigative television show “Complement d’Enquete” and the Nouvel Observateur magazine renewed the allegations in June.
Dati wants to become the French capital’s second woman mayor in a row in the March 2026 municipal vote.
She hopes to replace Socialist mayor Anne Hidalgo, 66, who is to step down after two terms in the post.