Roselyne Bachelot said to Rima Abdul Malak, her successor, “I am very pleased to welcome you to the place that you completely know and whose challenges are already known,” during the transfer of power. In 2019, she became the Elysee’s culture and communication advisor. She was also known as the “minister bis” for her extensive knowledge of the files. Franck Riester approached her to be her successor in 2020.
The Elysee was the place where the 43-year-old who won Rue de Valois keys was able to establish a close relationship to the president. They exchanged SMS messages and regularly sent each other poems. She also prepared a selection books for the Head of State when she was away. She confided in the “Obs” last season, “Being a cultural advisor is special.” Logging in is a must. I must be able to see what he likes.
Franco-Lebanese who lived in Lebanon during civil war for the first ten of her ten years, she arrived in Lyon with her family in 1989. She was influenced by a French teacher and fell in love with theater. This did not stop her from taking Sciences-Po Lyon, a DESS at the Sorbonne, as a studious course.
Her career began in humanitarian work, where she directed Clowns sans Frontieres from 2001 to 2006. This organization organizes shows for children living in war zones. It coordinates and manages the international network of artists.
After working at the French Institute for a while, she moved to Paris City Hall as an adviser and director of cabinet to Christophe Girard (deputy for culture). Before she was Bertrand Delanoe’s cultural advisor. She was named cultural attache at New York’s French Embassy in 2014. Her Delanoist heritage is what will allow her to enter the Elysee, where she is coopted by former colleagues of the Hotel de Ville.
She met Emmanuel Macron for the first time when she was serving on the Theatre de la Ville’s board of directors. He is a Rothschild banker and she represents Paris’ town hall. She recalls that he didn’t talk only about big bucks. He also spoke about theatre. She was also a cultural attache and organized a New York visit to Brigitte Merkel, while Macron participated in a general assembly at the UN: MoMA (High Line), Albertine bookstore…
She set to music the aid measures to the cultural sector during the Covid pandemic: white year for intermittent workers, compensation for the resumption or filming… She also initiated the videoconference between angry artists with the President, who encourages them to “ride on the tiger” in order to end the crisis. She boasts that she has made three annual budgets to the Ministry of Culture in a year. We saved the culture!
Despite being almost invisible to the media, she sat on the red couch of Michel Drucker’s “Vivement dimanche” show in 2013. Matthieu Chedid (alias -M) invited her to promote Clowns Without Borders.
His action at the Elysee was saluted by the politico-cultural All-Paris. Jack Lang said that Rima was a woman of experience and not a technocrat like many who fill ministerial offices today. She’s great. She’s great. Macron Jean-Marc Dumontet, a theater producer and friend, was also full of praises, even though he was also eyeing the Ministry of Culture.
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His desk is cluttered with thorny issues, including the abolition the audiovisual license fee, the states general for right to information, European metaverse, and the drop in cinema attendance. Other issues are the TF1/M6 merger and the succession of Catherine Pgard, Palace of Versailles.
