In a leafy riverside suburb west of Paris, the gentle evening birdsong was punctured by a shiny people carrier screeching into a modest community centre car park. Doors opened and a pair of feet in impossibly high, dominatrix-style, designer spike heels swung out of the car. "Look at the shoes," gasped one business leader as dignitaries, teachers and sixth formers who had gathered for a small campaign meeting turned to gawp.

Rachida Dati, the beleaguered French justice minister, may have been lampooned for her devotion to wearing ostentatious catwalk fashion at inappropriate moments, but having been forced by Nicolas Sarkozy to run in the European elections as a way of sacking her from government, she remains defiant in her choice of footwear.

Once she was Sarkozy's handpicked symbol of change, hugely popular with the public as the first Muslim woman to hold a major government post. Now, after a spectacular fall from grace, Dati is using the European election campaign to fight back.

Despite trying to prove her commitment by returning to work five days after giving birth by caesarian section, Sarkozy ordered her to run in order to sack her after the 7 June vote. She felt "humiliated", according to the former prime minister, Jean-Pierre Raffarin.

The European election campaign has now become another saga in the Dati soap opera, as she still refuses to reveal the name of the father of her baby daughter but has suggested she is keen for another child. Her allies have briefed that she is seeking "revenge" on the political class and is keen to run as mayor of Paris in four years' time.