IMHO it is not just symbolic. Rachida Data was a highly trained, qualified and distinguished Judge (Magistrate) before she joined Sarko’s team as his chief spokesman and campaign advisor.
She is the child of immigrants, not an immigrant herself. She has always been on the Right politically. The immigrants hate her, and consider her a traitor.
She is like Condi Rice in many ways, viewed in her own group as a traitor, but able to be a role model for others who wish to pull themselves up by their bootstraps as she did, work very hard, get an education, and excel.
She is the true American success story, and that is why they hate her on the Left.
I can believe all that, and wouldn’t have assumed otherwise (that she was unqualified, was not in some sense on the right, etc.) I still think it reflects a bow toward PC symbolism, and as such, is a bad sign of the state of things in France. However, Dati may also be quite effective. My larger concern is really her and Sarko’s support for racial preferences.