Sarkozy's women in government - Rachida Dati, a star on the wane?

Last week saw government ministers return to work here in France with the first cabinet meeting after the summer break.

But one minister in particular, Rachida Dati, will be hoping that the media will be a little kinder to her than they were in the earlier part of the year.

And if rumours currently doing the rounds on the Net turn out to be true, the justice minister could soon make an official announcement that she is pregnant. For the moment though, her office isn't commenting.

Now ministers are back from their break it seems like a good time to bring to a wider audience some of the names and faces that have been making the political headlines here over the past year, and in particular to take a look - in an occasional series - at some of the women who have been making their mark.

When the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, came to power in May 2007, he promised gender parity in the government. And he delivered by appointing seven to front line ministerial posts in the 15-strong cabinet.

All right so in reality it was actually the prime-minister, François Fillon (appointed by Sarkozy), who drew up the government, but not without the president's seal of approval.

There wasn't supposed to be any particular pecking order in the choice of who to start with in this series, but speculation in the media has perhaps forced the issue in the decision to plump for the justice minister, Rachida Dati.

Ah that speculation - let's get that out of the way first before taking a closer look at what she has brought to government and her chances of holding on to office for much longer.

The buzz doing the rounds on the Net is that the 42-year-old Dati is expecting.

Admittedly the rumour hasn't yet been reported in any of the daily newspapers but it has, perhaps not unsurprisingly, been picked up by some of the weekly glossy magazines such as Voici and Gala, and even made it on to national radio on Monday morning.

Gala reports that Dati turned up at last week's cabinet meeting showing the first visible signs of a likely pregnancy and when contacted, her office, rather than issuing a denial preferred "no comment".

Anyway it'll surely not be too long before the rumour is either confirmed or scuppered, but in the meantime if you want to find out more of the buzz for yourself, try googling "Rachida Dati enceinte" and see what you come up with.

On to the more serious business of who Dati is and how she has fared in office so far.

First up Dati was, on paper at least, a pretty smart choice as she represented just about everything Sarkozy could wish for as he set about the task of "remodelling" the country.

She’s the first person, let alone woman, of North African origin to hold a top government post and her rise from relative humble beginnings as one of 12 children to high office is the stuff of every Hollywood director’s dreams.

Her appointment raised many a proverbial eyebrow as she had never even run for office let alone hold it, and was politically pretty inexperienced.

And that started to show in just the first few months as she received a fair amount of flak for the manner in which she tried to push through reforms to France’s antiquated judicial administrative system.

Even though there was general political support from all quarters for the need for reform, Dati was criticised for total incompetence by some Socialist parliamentarians.

Unfortunately she has also had the tendency to look a little like a rabbit caught in a car’s headlights when facing the cameras or standing up in parliament, and before Carla came along seemed to spend just a little too much time as Sarkozy’s “second lady” on his official trips to Morocco, China and the United States.

And therein lies another problem. Dati was – and still is – good buddies with Sarkozy's former wife Cécilia and has had to face a fair amount of ridicule from the press and accusations that she only got the job over others more qualified because of the former (non) “first lady’s” influence.

Then there was a “storm in a teacup” scandal over an apparent false declaration of academic qualifications before she enrolled in the prestigious National College of Magistrates that certainly didn't endear her to the chattering classes.

And the knives were definitely out over her quest for genuine political credibility when she (successfully) stood for a seat in one of the capital's most swanky suburbs in this year's local elections.

She has also been mocked untiringly by the weekly satirical le Canard Enchaîné, which has charted the succession of resignations from her office since she took over (11 and counting), portrayed her as an overbearing boss, and broken the news on her department's "extravagance" when it came to entertaining.




In March, just as the government was encouraging people to tighten their belts, Dati was forced to confirm that her department had already spent two-thirds of its annual €200,000 entertainment budget.

And then a couple of months later, in June, she found herself under fire again from all sides as she became embroiled in a ruling which did her no political favours. Dati was forced to do a volte face and ask the public prosecutors office to appeal a court decision, which had previously annulled a marriage because the wife of a Moslem man had lied about being a virgin.

At first Dati refused to intervene, but changed her mind after the ruling made the national (and international) headlines and the prime minister was forced to step in.

All the while of course, Dati has not exactly been a shrinking violet in public.

Far from it. She has almost appeared to bask in the notoriety that public office has brought, regularly appearing on television (or not, when her own terms weren't met) and on the front cover and inside pages of the weekly magazine Paris Match - for all the part looking and behaving (according to her critics) as a Dior-dressed A-list celebrity.

So long seemingly protected by Sarkozy, Dati has not exactly been among his most closely sought advisors for the past couple of months. Indeed Le Figaro just last week reminded its readers that since May she has no longer appeared to enjoy the prestige of being in the inner circle of ministers consulted over future government strategy.

So perhaps her star has already begun to wane.

In the meantime next up for Dati - politically speaking - is reform of the country's overcrowded prisons. The latest figures from June show that over 64,000 inmates are currently held in a system that has room for around 51,000.

Reforms have already been discussed at cabinet level and are expected to be put before parliament next month.

But it's anybody's guess as to whether Dati will be the minister presenting and defending those reforms.