FOLLOWING an easy victory in the 2007 election and enjoying a comfortable majority in the National Assembly and the Senate, when President Nicolas Sarkozy announced the names of his ministers, it was a bit of a surprise to many.

The ‘rainbow cabinet’ as it was quickly baptised by the French Press, comprised not only members of Sarkozy’s blue right, but also people from the red left and the green environmentalist parties. A few also represented ethnic minorities.

“It is merely secondary what political ideology one belongs to, if one is capable and ready to serve the country”, explained the newly elected president, adding it was precisely for this reason that he had chosen Bernard Kouchner, a socialist, as foreign minister and Hervé Morin, a centrist, as defence minister.

One important member of the ‘rainbow cabinet’ was Rashida Dati who was named justice minister. Daughter of a Moroccan bricklayer and the second among twelve children of the working class family, Dati had successfully completed her law studies and had begun the career of an advocate when Sarkozy invited her to join his party.

Compared, for example, with foreign affairs, culture or defence ministries that are frequently exposed to the media, managing the justice portfolio is a sombre job. The ‘Guardian of the Seals’ (official appellation of a justice minister in France) normally works behind the scenes, and with utmost discretion.

However, from day one she became the darling of the media as she attended high society soirées hobnobbing with millionaires, movie stars and other celebrities.

The president was conscious of the unease among his entourage but the matter was delicate, given the ethnic background of his minister in question. Then, to Sarkozy’s solace, a solution emerged all by itself hardly a year after her appointment when Dati appeared in a TV show visibly pregnant.

“May I ask you if you are pregnant?” said the TV host, “and can we know the name of the father?”

Dati hit back: “I am not asking you details about your personal life, so you have no right to question me over such things!”

The following days the topic was the centre of all the French gossip magazines. So much so that Dati called a press conference saying she preferred not to name the father.

This also happened to be the time when France was required to name a new representative at the European Parliament following the retirement of the old one. Sarkozy was only too glad to approve of Dati’s candidature. Elected in June 2009, soon after giving birth to a daughter, she resigned from her post as the Guardian of the Seals. Government ministers heaved a sigh of relief and nobody was hurt.

Shortly prior to her daughter fifth birthday in spring this year, Dati filed a petition in the court of Versailles that the 70-year-old multimillionaire businessman Dominique Desseigne legally be named as the father.

Desseigne, owner of Lucien Barrière, the biggest chain of casinos in many European countries, admitted to his relationship with Dati, but claims that other men may be the father of Dati’s child.

Two weeks ago the court handed down its ruling that Desseigne must undergo a DNA test in order to establish the truth, or falsehood, of the accusation. Until then, he remains the ‘designated’ father of the child as far as the legal proceedings are concerned.

Newspapers quoting legal sources say Desseigne does not have to submit to such a test unless those other men are also made to do the same.

The court has nevertheless ordered the multimillionaire to pay child support worth 2,500 euros a month.

The defence lawyer says he is working on an appeal on Desseigne’s behalf against the court’s decision.

Meanwhile, the search for the father of Dati’s child is far from over.

—The writer is a journalist based in Paris.

(ZafMasud@gmail.com)

Published in Dawn, October 26th, 2014