Workplace bullying by President Nicolas Sarkozy was the real reason the French Justice Minister returned to work five days after having a baby, the former presidential candidate, Segolene Royal, said yesterday.
Royal - who has four children and was the first French minister to give birth while in
office - jumped to the support of her bitter political enemy, Rachida Dati, whose rapid resumption of her duties has been criticised by women's groups.
Dati's decision was hers alone and the criticism was "indecent and unjust", Royal said. The socialist politician went on, however, to lambast Sarkozy for making an important policy announcement in Dati's area of responsibility so soon after she gave birth to a baby girl.
The Justice Minister was put under "extremely violent pressure" to return to front-line politics or risk losing her job, Royal suggested.
"His brutal, provocative and humiliating behaviour showed a total lack of respect," she said. "Instead of reassuring and protecting her, he gave her a psychological shove in the back and left her with an impossible choice. Under employment law, that would be called workplace bullying."
Dati, 43, gave birth to a daughter, Zohra, on January 2. She turned up for the first Cabinet meeting of the new year on Thursday. On the same day, Sarkozy announced radical plans to transform the French justice system, including the abolition of independent, investigating magistrates.
Women's rights groups have accused Dati of undermining the social and legal case for maternity leave and inviting unscrupulous employers to put pressure on women to return to work too soon after giving birth.
Royal, who introduced paternity leave when she was Family Minister in the 1990s, said she thought that Dati had gone back to work too soon. "To be on your feet five days after a Caesarean birth is too soon, no doubt," she said. "But if you have an exceptional job, you sometimes have to act in an exceptional way. I wish people would leave Rachida Dati alone."
Royal's support for Dati caused astonishment across the political spectrum yesterday. As spokeswoman for the successful Sarkozy presidential campaign in 2007, Dati was a vicious critic of Royal and her rival campaign. The former candidate - who hopes to run again in 2012 - also revealed yesterday that she had concealed her pregnancy from the then Prime Minister, Pierre Beregovoy, when she was offered the post of Education Minister in 1992. When she gave birth to her daughter, Flora, in July that year, she allowed TV cameras into the hospital because she thought it wrong that professional women should have to "hide their maternity".
Nadine Morano, the Family Minister, accused Royal yesterday of cynically "hijacking a happy event on our side of politics" for publicity. At least, she said, Dati had not had to conceal her pregnancy from her colleagues - as Royal originally did.
The controversy over Dati's early return to work has blotted out - temporarily perhaps - another controversy. The Justice Minister, a political unknown before being given a front-rank job by Sarkozy in May 2007, is unmarried. She has steadfastly refused, in the face of media speculation, to name the father of her child.
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