Her birth father left when she was a baby; she was raised by her mother and stepfather.

For months, Dati warned she would refuse to stand aside. Now she has stunned the political class with an open letter to Fillon in Le Monde, a scathing character assassination accusing him of the lone ambition of a disillusioned political elite, of doing politics in a way that never favoured women and stopping ethnic-minority candidates from progressing at elections. She said he was committing a sad mistake in trying to run in Paris.

A ship sails in the eye of the wind.

The situation, however, is not unknown, for in Ockseu (China) lighthouse in December 1922, the principal keeper, a European, suddenly went insane and terrorized the whole establishment for several days before shooting dead his European assistant and himself. The two subordinate Chinese keepers kept the light going for twelve days before relief came.