Sarko ‘to give Rama Yade the chop’

Has President Nicolas Sarkozy decided that one beautiful women in his life - Carla Bruni - is enough? Either that or he has had a major change of heart about building a 'rainbow' government of ethnic diversity and gender. First he sacked Rachida Dati (right), his  controversial Justice Minister, and now it looks like he's about to give the chop to Rama Yade (left), the equally glamorous 32-year-old who holds the human rights portfolio.

According to a report in Le Monde, Yade, who like Dati is of North African descent, has been informed by Sarkozy that he wants her to leave as soon as possible.  But Yade is said to be digging her heels in: first she tried charm – it was reported last week that she sent Sarkozy a box of heart-shaped chocolates, an appeal to his notoriously sweet tooth – now she is adamantly refusing to go quietly.

Like Dati, she has been offered a safe seat to fight in European elections, but feels this is inadequate compensation. This has resulted in a tense battles of nerves, according to Le Monde. "The president freezes out his human rights secretary and denigrates her in public - even if he doesn't mention her name.”

The satirical newspaper Le Canard Enchaine claims that while she may not be fired immediately, the president's mind is already made up: "It's completely over [with Rama], she's unplugged," it cites Sarkozy as saying. "She will not be kept on in the next government [reshuffle]."

Yade has been critical of Sarkozy in the past – she publicly decried his decision to roll out the red carpet to Libya’s President Gaddafi when he visited Paris last year – but it is not known exactly why he has turned against her.

Yade, however, still has one trump card: she is one of France's most popular politicians. According to a poll published on Wednesday, she lies in joint second place behind Paris mayor Bertrand Delanoe as the politician the French would like to see gain in influence.

Meanwhile, more details have emerged of Dati's pleas to stay in government before she reluctantly agreed to walk. According to Le Canard Enchaine, after being reduced to tears, she played the baby card. "What about my daughter?" she reportedly asked Sarkozy. "If I become an MEP, I'll be absent from Paris four days per week. That will cause a huge nannying problem."

"You're wrong," Sarkozy is said to have replied. "You only have to be in Strasbourg four days per month and two in Brussels, and in both places there are creches, as 40 per cent of MEPs are women."
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