Dati to step down from role in june


Dati to step down from role in june

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U-TURN AS EMBATTLED JUSTICE MINISTER ACCEPTS TO STAND AS CANDIDATE IN EU ELECTIONS. JUSTICE Minister Rachida Dati will step down from her position in June to fight in the European elections.


The news comes just a week after the minister told Le Figaro – “non, non et non!” when asked if she might be a candidate at the European elections. She had told the newspaper that there was


no question of her leaving for the European Parliament and she had been told by President Sarkozy she would be staying in her current job this year. Her remarks followed a story by RTL that


she was rumoured to be a European election candidate. Now the minister has backtracked by accepting second place on her party’s Ile-de-France list, behind Agriculture Minister Michel


Barnier. The minister, whose rapid return to work following the birth of her daughter Zohra sparked a row over parental leave, is unpopolar among members of the justice sector where her


reforms have led to protests. Parties put forward a list for each of eight European regions, of which Ile-de-France is one, and MEP seats are filled by proportional representation, starting


with those at the top. Dati is expected to head for an MEP role from this summer following the elections on June 4 -7. France will have a total of 72 seats in the parliament this time and


MEPs are in office for five years. All permanent residents in France can vote in the European Parliament elections if they are EU nationals. However it was necessary to be on the electoral


register by December 31 last year. Photo:Afp/Bertrand Langlois STORY: Anger at Dati’s supermum example