One is black, the other is Arab, both are beautiful - and they are wearing down Nicolas Sarkozy.

The story in France this week was not the economic slump nor the President's EU triumphs. It was his quandary over Rama Yade and Rachida Dati, the headstrong protégées who are the icons of his rainbow Cabinet.

“Super Sarko” prides himself on being the ultimate alpha male but he has become putty in the hands of the young ministers of Human Rights and Justice, tolerating incompetence that would probably have a male dismissed. Both are in disgrace but they are staying in their jobs for now, despite rumours of a reshuffle.

The antics of the pair, who are among 13 women ministers, have swung the spotlight on to the Achilles' heel of the Napoleonic President: his soft spot for female favourites.

France was reminded again of a remark by Simone Veil, the grande dame of the Right who legalised abortion in the 1970s: “In the presence of women, Nicolas is a child.”

François Bayrou, Mr Sarkozy's centrist rival for the presidency last year, likened the Yade-Dati saga to old Versailles. The Elysée Palace “operates like the royal court”, Mr Bayrou said on Thursday. “You are in the grace or disgrace and everything is decided by a nod from the sovereign.”

The Senegal-born Ms Yade, 32, who was a junior civil servant before her elevation to junior minister, has just refused an order from Mr Sarkozy to leave her post to lead his UMP Party in the European Parliament. She has worn down his patience with prima donna behaviour and talking out of turn but each time has been forgiven.

Ms Yade has also taken a few swipes at Ms Dati, who, she said, “is only interested in dresses and parties”. Ms Dati, 42, whose working-class parents came from Morocco and Algeria and who previously worked on Mr Sarkozy's staff, has offended just about everyone in her senior Cabinet post. She has infuriated judges, prison guards and lawyers with the ruthless way that she has imposed reforms. Once adored, she has become a figure of media mockery for her gaffes, her high spending on designer clothes, her lavish use of official jets and her delusions of grandeur. When Barack Obama won the presidency, she commanded the French Embassy in Washington to get his mobile number so that she could phone him. The Elysée ordered her to calm down.

On Thursday she was reported to have boasted that she was unsackable because she knew about political corruption in high places.

The unmarried Ms Dati has two strong cards: she is the star symbol of the ethnic diversity upon which Mr Sarkozy places great store (he used to call her “my little Arab girl”), and she is expecting a baby in February - and sacking or demoting the new mother would not look good.

The President's need for the favour of women can be tracked from his fatherless upbringing by a formidable mother through to his dependence on Cécilia, the glamorous wife who left him in pieces last year, and his lightning marriage to Carla Bruni four months later.

It can also explain his fraught relations with Angela Merkel. The reserved German Chancellor is cold to Mr Sarkozy's compulsion to dominate through charm.

Yazmina Reza, the playwright who followed Mr Sarkozy throughout his election campaign, depicted him as a bully and a boy eager to please. Isabelle Balkany, a municipal politician and friend, describes him as “un séducteur - a seducer or a charmer - whom it is hard for a woman to resist”.

The latest influence on Mr Sarkozy is the supermodel-singer he married in February. Ms Bruni, who hails from rich, artistic circles, has swayed the authoritarian President towards her left-wing thinking.

Indeed, Ms Dati's fall from grace is dated to Mr Sarkozy's romance with Ms Bruni last winter. In a widely reported incident, Ms Bruni is said to have taunted Ms Dati one evening as they walked past the presidential bed in the palace. “You would have liked to be there, wouldn't you?” Ms Bruni is reported to have said.

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