THE TELEGRAPH: Rachida Dati, France's justice minister, on Sunday remained loyal to President Nicolas Sarkozy, saying it was her job to "go out into the field" in her first public reaction since losing her cabinet post to run for the European parliament.
While the move for France's first top-level minister of North African origin from the cabinet to Strasbourg was widely seen as a humiliating step down, Miss Dati remained stoically upbeat.
"A female or male politician's career isn't about owning a mandate or being nominated to a post; it's about going out into the field convince [people] about our ideas," said the 43-year old single mother.
In a leadership gathering of Mr Sarkozy's ruling UMP – where he anointed the party's new leader, Xavier Bertrand - the president made it plain that his former protégée should be thankful that her departure was not more brutal.
"The life of a government is made of departures and returns. I myself have been through it in far less amicable conditions that [sic] those reserved for you," he said to a stony-faced Miss Dati. >>> By Henry Samuel in Paris | Monday, January 26, 2009
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