Rachida Dati - is she being pushed or is she jumping?

It was widely reported at the end of last week throughout the French media that the justice minister, Rachida Dati, would be resigning from the government.

There's still no word from the minister herself, or an exact date fixed for her departure.

But at the weekend, the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, confirmed that Dati would be on the list of the ruling centre-right Union pour un Mouvement Populaire (Union for a Popular Movement, UMP), party in June's elections for the European parliament.

Her inclusion means that she will have to step down from the government if, as expected, she is elected.

It was perhaps this country's worst-kept political secret (of the week), but is Dati really going of her own free will or did she simply have no choice in the matter.

Let's look at some of the facts as objectively as possible, and then you can judge for yourself.

First up Dati was not the first choice to head the list in Ile de France region (the area around Paris) for those European elections in June.

Sarkozy had been trying to persuade the junior minister for human rights, Rama Yade, to take on that role, but she refused with the now rather famous comment here that the order was rather "like being forced to marry Prince Albert (of Monaco)".

Furthermore Dati won't actually be heading the list, instead she'll be number two to Michel Barnier, the current agriculture minister and himself a former European commissioner.

He too will be stepping down from the government, and the date for his departure has already been fixed for the beginning of May - roughly a month ahead of the June 7 elections.

Just in case you were wondering at this point, that's the rule in French politics.

An individual cannot serve simultaneously in the European parliament and remain a government minister.

Hence there'll be two posts up for grabs when Barnier and Dati leave.

So back to Dati - not number one on the list as might have been expected, but at number two still a shoo-in.

Even though Sarkozy praised her over the weekend at the UMP's national convention, when he announced the double act that would be leading the party's push in the elections, many could interpret his remarks as having something of a hollow ring to them.

After all Dati has in a manner of speaking been "out of favour" with the French president for several months now, to the extent that she was excluded from the so-called "G7" or inner circle of ministers consulted over future government strategy.

Mind you the prime minister, François Fillon, with whom Sarkozy does not have the closest or easiest of relations, has also been outside of that group, so Dati has not been alone.

That was in stark contrast to the protection Sarkozy provided her throughout her first months in the job.

Remember he brought Dati into the government as the first person, let alone woman, of North African descent to hold a top ministerial position.

It was widely seen as a pretty smart choice by Sarkozy as part of his policy of "opening up" the government and French politics to make it better reflect political and ethnic diversity in the country.

Dati had previously held no elected office, although she has since run for, and secured, the post of mayor of the VII arrondissement of Paris in last year's local elections.

Throughout her time in the job as justice minister, she has often been ridiculed in the media and certainly by the opposition Socialist party as being incompetent.

Her management skills have been the source of many a news story as her ministry haemorrhaged staff with more than a dozen members leaving over the course of just 12 months.

Then of course there has been her apparently rather "extravagant" lifestyle. Dati has graced the front cover and inside pages of several weekly magazines, and came in for criticism all round when she admitted in March last year that her department had blown two-thirds of its annual €200,000 entertainment budget in just three months.

Most tellingly though perhaps has been the flak she has received from the judiciary itself - magistrates and lawyers - who have accused her of pushing through reforms to the system with insufficient consultation.

There had been rumours circulating for several months that Sarkozy would try to move Dati to another ministry and away from the firing line.

By moving her to a European level while promising her a return to the national scene at some undisclosed future date, Sarkozy has also been able to present it as proof that his party was leading the way in promoting political "diversity" in a way that no other French party had done.

"The decision to put Michel and Rachida at the top of the list of the biggest region (in terms of population) in France is historic," he told the UMP convention on Saturday.

"No other party in France had dared to do this so far."

Finally perhaps, if you've been following French politics recently, you were expecting some comment on Dati having recently given birth and returning to work after five days, and you're maybe wondering whether that had some role to play in her quitting the government.

The general consensus in France - given the coverage that aspect has received within the media in its reporting of Dati leaving government, would probably have to be "no".

The 43-year-old single mother certainly came under fire from some groups for returning to work so quickly after giving birth to her first child at the beginning of this month, but there has been no suggestion that it was a factor in her decision to run for the European elections.

Or put another way her agreement to follow Sarkozy's instructions.

So is she being pushed or is she jumping?

You decide.