She can't do without it, even though her power is illusory.

French term (edited): malade de l\'exercice du pouvoir

it has the illusion of being in a position of power but whatever power it exerts is already its downfall

I suspect we're talking about an organisation rather than a person

this is similar to what Wendy has said in Disc. If "elle" refers to the political Left of the PS in France well, it has the illusion of power (in Hollande's government) but is sick from the exercise of it (or "exercising it", though I prefer the former). meaning basically that after screaming about Sarkozy etc for so long, now they have power with Hollande, they are not doing as well as they thought and are losing favour with the public. So, having power and exercising it are not always the same...

You really need to let us know which of the Leftist parties you are talking of here.

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Note added at 7 hrs (2013-09-30 18:12:37 GMT)
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actually, Petitavoine's "has taken a toll on them" is good too.
The Left has the illusion of power but this very power has taken its toll on them.../the exercise of this power has taken its toll/has damaged them

French term (edited): elle a l’illusion du pouvoir, mais est malade de l’exercice du pouvoir."

"Elle a l’illusion du pouvoir, mais est malade de l’exercice du pouvoir."

"elle" being the political Left

"it has the illusion of being in power, but (in fact) suffers from being in power"

the construction "est malade de [...]" is used to introduce the name of the illness (as in: est malade de la fièvre) so here "l’exercice du pouvoir." is the illness afflicting the Left;

or a nastier version:

"it has the delusion of being in power, but (in fact) suffers from being in power"

French term (edited): malade de l\'exercice du pouvoir

illusion = effect/impression
il en est malade = he suffers from it

On reflection, I think it means something like this;

The ruling party sees itself as powerful but its position has weakened since it came into office

Again, the confidentiality means my suggestion is something of a fumble in the dark. It really would be cool to have the sentence that goes before. For example, is "elle" referring to a person? It would seem logical but it might not be so. Further "malade" is this something which in context is negative? Has it weakened the individual? Or has it made her overconfident? Given the majority of suggestions erring on the literal illness inference, thus weakness, I am suggesting another take, for academic purposes, to give another potential reading.

It would be ice if you could find some way of paraphrasing whatever is in the sentence before the ones you post. ;-)


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Note added at 1 day7 hrs (2013-10-01 17:41:58 GMT)
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"Gone to her head" in the sense of it having made her dizzy, irrational, not necessarily megalomaniac.

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Note added at 1 day7 hrs (2013-10-01 17:44:54 GMT)
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Or "it has gone to her head".

Important for me to use the word 'corrupt' as we say in English

'Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely'

We also speak of 'corrupt governments'

see example sentence too