SUNDAY HERALD: EUROPE'S PRESS HAS LAUNCHED ITSELF into a coy game of hunt-the-father after the revelation that France's justice minister Rachida Dati, a single woman and a Muslim, is expecting a baby. Dati, a petite 42-year-old who is a devoted ally of President Nicolas Sarkozy, confirmed on Wednesday what her shape was making it impossible to hide, telling journalists that the pregnancy was a source of huge personal happiness. But she quickly scotched any attempt to discover the paternity, saying only that: "I have a complicated private life. I will not be communicating further on this matter."
French newspapers and broadcast media have tied themselves in contortions trying to reconcile their legal duty not to pry into a minister's private life with the enormous public interest in so fascinating a human tale. For the most part this has meant using their internet sites to report "factually" the gossip being purveyed by more salacious non-French media - thus simultaneously stoking the story and keeping a prudent distance.
The names of several candidates have been aired, including Dominique Desseigne, head of a casino and hotel empire; Henri Proglio, CEO of Veolia Environment; and a popular French television presenter known simply as Arthur. Bizarrely, one Moroccan internet site cited the former Spanish prime ministerJose-Maria Aznar as Dati's lover. Aznar promptly issued a denial, but not before his name had been circulated around the world.
Other sites even suggested artifical insemination. The truth is, though, that no-one outside of Dati's immediate circle knows who is the baby's father, and as she seems bent on remaining unattached, the secret appears secure.
The tittle-tattle over paternity has obscured the more important aspect of the affair, which is surely Dati's determination to push back the limits on what Muslim women may or may not publicly achieve in France. Born in 1965 to a Moroccan bricklayer father and an Algerian mother, Dati was brought up in a high-immigration banlieue in the Burgundy town of Chalons-sur-Saône.
She is the second in a family of 11 children, and two of her brothers have recently been in trouble with the law. Driven by an indomitable urge to prove herself above her unpromising origins, she became an accountant and then a magistrate before being talent-spotted by Sarkozy, who saw in her the embodiment of his ideal of the striving outsider.
According to a profile in Le Point magazine this week, "Sarkozy recognised himself in the courage, the nerve, the self-assurance of this child of immigrants. As she herself has said, There's something in me that creates an echo in him, a kind of mirror effect. Like me, he cannot stand humiliation'." Defiant Muslim Minister Keeping Mum on Father: Tough privacy laws make life difficult for media fascinated by Rachida Dati’s story. >>> From Hugh Schofield in Paris | September 7, 2008
THE AGE:
In Paris, Polly's Baby Is a Private Affair >>> By William Langley, Paris | September 8. 2008
THE OBSERVER:
The mother of all intrigues: With the announcement of her pregnancy by an unnamed man, France's sharp and ambitious justice minister has given the nation what it loves best: the chance to laugh at its prurient, prudish Anglo-Saxon neighbours >>> By Jason Burke | September 7. 2008
AFRICAN PATH:
France : Sarkozy’s Former Lover Rachida Dati, Is Pregnant >>> By Elie B Smith | September 5, 2008
GALA.fr:
Au jeu du Cluedo de la paternité, l'Europe s'en donne à coeur joie! : C'est le nouveau feuilleton Harlequin de la fin d'été: qui est donc le père de l'enfant que porte Rachida Dati? Depuis que José Maria Aznar a démenti cette paternité, les médias européens se perdent en conjectures...
Il s'agit là d'une nouvelle version du Cluedo. Le but n'est pas de trouver l'assassin mais le géniteur. Qui, où et avec quelles armes de séduction? Depuis que le ventre rond de Rachida Dati a émergé de ses pantalons en flanelle, une partie de l'Europe se réveille avec la même question lancinante et aujourd'hui encore sans réponse: qui donc a fait un enfant à notre ministre de la Justice?
Un homme du monde de la politique, des affaires, du show-biz? Toutes les spéculations sont les bienvenues. Le premier suspect dans cette affaire était l'ancien chef du gouvernement espagnol, José Maria Aznar, mais ce dernier vient de démentir la rumeur lancée par un journal marocain (José Maria Aznar nie être le père de l'enfant de Rachida Dati). Non, il n'est pas le père de Rachida Junior. Il a tout de même fallu un démenti officiel tandis que le site du journal marocain L'Observateur maintient son information. Mauvais joueur! >>> | Jeudi 4 septembre 2008
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The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Broché) >>>
The Dawning of a new Dark Age (Relié) >>>
