Rachida Dati mistakes inflation for oral sex on TV

France's glamorous former justice minister Rachida Dati has made an embarrassing Freudian slip during a television interview in which she confused financial inflation for oral sex.

Dati, now a member of the European parliament in 2009 and mayor of Paris's 7th arrondissement, appeared yesterday on Dimanche + on the TV channel Canal Plus to attack foreign investment funds, which, she said, "have only one objective: excessive levels of financial returns".

"When I see some of these funds asking for returns of 20 or 25 per cent, at a time when oral sex is close to zero…"

Dati had said "fellation" – presumably intending to use the similar sounding "inflation", but it was too late to prevent her faux pas becoming an internet phenomenon. By 6pm yesterday, the video (above) of Dati's slip had been viewed on LePost.fr 120,000 times.

Dati remains a figure of fascination for the French who obsess over her penchant for designer dresses and colourful private life (she became a single mother at the age of 43 and refuses to reveal the identity of the father). And it is not the first time she has been caught out on TV. Last December, Dati, who is believed to have been dropped as justice minister and exiled to the European parliament by French president Nicolas Sarkozy after appearing once too often on the cover of a celebrity magazine, was caught on a microphone complaining about her status as an MEP to a friend: "I can't take any more! I just can't take any more. I think I'll go crazy before I'm finished my term."

Yesterday, Dati explained her 'fellation' lapse on her Facebook page: "These things can happen if you talk too fast in this kind of broadcast... However, I find it unfortunate that this was the only political message to come out on such a serious subject." ·