France’s New Minister for Overseas Territories

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Nicolas Sarkozy, the height-challenged president of France, has chosen yet another glamour girl to join his cabinet (or should that be “harem”).  The former television presenter, Christine Kelly, who also happens to look great in a bikini, has been made Minister for Overseas Territories.

Miss Kelly met with French President Nicolas Sarkozy at the Elysée last week.

Given the recent civil unrest in the islands, including Kelly’s native Guadeloupe, it seems odd to appoint someone with no experience in politics. Mr. Sarkozy has muttered something about Kelly being attractive as well as in touch with the modern world – whatever that means. My view is that he simply needs a bit of arm candy to replace Rachida Dati, the former justice minister who was fired in January. Still in France, politics and glamour go together like apples and cheese.

Other beauties in Sarkozy’s cabinet include human rights minister Rama Yade. Finance minister Christine Lagarde is no slouch in the elegance department either… seeing the 53 year old at the opera recently and she is even more striking in person than in pictures.

Then there is Sarkozys opponent Ségolène Royal, the Socialist presidential candidate he defeated two years ago.  Mme Royal was famously pictured in a bikini in 2006, enviably trim for 52.

While some say Dati’s penchant for bling was her downfall – posing in her beloved Dior in Paris Match, plus the rumours of her many lovers, including, it is said, Mr. Sarkozy (before he married Carla Bruni) – political insiders think the real straw that broke the camel’s back was less glamorous. That was her confrontation, in Arabic, at the Senate with Fadela Amara, a minor minister (sadly, not so good-looking). “Why don’t you shut your mouth?” Dati screamed to Amara.  To which Amara shot back “Why don’t you shut your arse?”

It is a far cry from the British ministerial team of Gordon Brown. Caroline Flint, Europe Minister, is striking but not in the same league as Yade or Dati. As for Harriet Harman, let’s just say that a woman who boasted about never spending more than £50 on a handbag would be unlikely to go far in France. The glamorous French woman just seem so much more natural her Anglo-Saxon counterpart.

I can’t help but notice the spring wardrobe of Sarkozys very beautiful and very tall wife, Carla Bruni… little Jackie O suits paired with flat shoes. In Sarkozy’s cabinet, women must not outshine him… and they had better not be taller, either.