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Monday, 03 December 2007 |
Secrétaire d’État chargée des affaires étrangères
The absence of her minister Bernard Kouchner, off
battling the Burmese, put Ramatoulayé Yade-Zimet (her
full name, which has fortunately been abbreviated for daily
use) right in the hot seat when the extraordinary affair of the
Arche de Zoé and the ‘Darfur orphans’ hit the headlines. She
handled the crisis with considerable aplomb, speaking coolly
and clearly both on the TV and in the Chambre. She had
already become familiar in the media during Nicolas
Sarkozy’s presidential campaign, often warming up the
audience before he spoke. But from there to becoming the
youngest member of the Cabinet, looking even younger than
her 30 years as she presides confidently over a long table of
grave and grey-haired councillors, is a very big step. How
did she make it?
She was born in Dakar, Sénégal, in 1976, to an affluent
Muslim family, her mother a teacher and her father the
personal secretary of Léopold Senghor, the famous Socialist
President of the former French colony who became a
member of the Académie française. The family broke up and,
in 1987, she came to France with her mother, and attended
Catholic schools. She did brilliantly, going through the tough
entrance exams for Sciences-Po (Institut d’Études
Politiques), where she got her diploma in 2000. After a stage
at the Paris mairie she joined the Senate administrative team,
and before long was in charge of their TV programmes;
indeed she was rapidly promoted in all posts she held and
was soon moving in top political circles. In spite of her
Socialist background, she became an enthusiastic supporter
of Sarkozy, and joined the UMP in 2005.
In the same year she married Joseph Zimet, once a
militant Socialist, now a councillor in the cabinet of Jean-
Marie Bockel, himself a Secrétaire d’État in the ex-Socialist
Kouchner’s team and a defector from the PS. Her father-inlaw
is Ben Zimet, a well-known singer of Yiddish songs.
With this astonishingly varied background she has been
described as “a beautiful symbol and a powerful promise”.
Nevertheless, her arrival at the top has exposed her to some
harsh criticism. Like Rachida Dati, she has never been
elected to anything. You learn a lot on the hustings.
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