Rachida Dati - hardly a model European parliamentarian

It's surely a tough life being a European parliamentarian especially when you weren't that keen on the job in the first place and now find yourself having to spend your time shuttling between Brussels and Strasbourg.

There are those interminable debates to attend, innumerable meetings to show up at, issues that might be a little (or a lot) out of your league when the micro is thrust your way for an "informed" opinion and all that while keeping an eye on what's happening back home where you really, really want to be.

But if you're Rachida Dati, the former French justice minister (and current mayor of the VII arrondissement in Paris), it's simple to dispel any rumours that the whole thing might be getting you down and you're as "happy as larry" doing what you're doing and being where you are.

Simply agree to let the cameras follow you around for a day and bingo, everyone can see that you're really up to the job and having the time of your life.

Ahem.

But of course it didn't quite turn out that way - perhaps because it isn't the case for Dati - as viewers of M6's weekly news magazine "66 minutes" discovered last Sunday.

A clip from the programme (filmed in September) shows her, seemingly forgetting that she still has an open micro attached, making a personal 'phone call during which she expresses her true feelings about the job and how she's convinced she won't last the course.

Rachida Dati craque au PE
par liberation

"I'm in the parliamentary chamber in Strasbourg," we hear her saying.

"I'm exhausted. I'm exhausted," she repeats.

"I think there'll be some sort of drama before I finish my mandate," Dati continues.

"I have to stay here because there are some journalists around and then there's the vote on confirming (José Manuel) Barroso" re-election.

"When you're in Strasbourg they can see whether or not you're voting."

Oops.

The clip first seen by a limited audience - namely those watching the programme - has inevitably found its way on to the Net.

Of course Dati never really wanted to stand for the European parliament in the first place, and even during the campaign showed herself to have less-than-a-firm grasp of issues...a trait she repeated recently when asked about European objectives for the climate change summit in Copenhagen and answered confidently by saying that it was "to reduce the temperature by two degrees Celsius."

But what exactly was it the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, said earlier this year when he "encouraged" Dati to stand in June's European parliamentary election - after (the then junior minister for human rights) Rama Yade refused?

Oh yes.

"The way France can best maintain its role in Europe is by sending the 'best' to the European parliament."