Sarkozy demotes single mom minister

PARIS, Jan. 23 (UPI) -- Justice Minister Rachida Dati, the first French cabinet member of North African descent, has been demoted three weeks after bearing a daughter out of wedlock.

President Nicolas Sarkozy made Dati a candidate for the European Parliament, The Sun reported. Dati confirmed she had resigned from the cabinet Friday.

Dati's inspiring life story -- as the daughter of a laborer from Morocco and an Algerian mother, her love of designer clothes and expensive jewelry and her decision to have a child out of wedlock at age 43 -- made her a celebrity in France. She has not named the father of her child, and Sarkozy is one of the candidates mentioned in the press along with Sports Minister Bernard Laporte, Spanish Prime Minister Jose-Maria Aznar, Francois-Henri Pinault of Gucci and an anonymous donor to a Copenhagen sperm bank.

Since her appointment as justice minister in 2007, she has been criticized for her management of the department.