In a Paris courtroom this week, Rachida Dati — a woman whose ascent from a Burgundy housing estate to the heights of French political life became a story of national possibility — now faces the question of whether that same influence was quietly sold. The former culture minister and MEP stands accused of accepting €900,000 from a Renault-Nissan subsidiary in exchange for parliamentary lobbying disguised as legal work, a charge she firmly denies. Alongside her, the fugitive former auto executive Carlos Ghosn is tried in absentia from his refuge in Lebanon, a ghost at the table of accountability