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Sarkozy’s Egyptian holiday with top model triggers controversy

— Photo: AFP

French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his model-turned-singer girlfriend Carla Bruni in Luxor, Egypt, on Thursday.

Paris: French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s idyllic Egyptian holiday with his new love, singer and former top model Carla Bruni, came in for some sharp criticism from members of the opposition in France who claimed he was compromising the dignity of the presidential office.

The European press too was almost unanimous in reproaching Mr Sarkozy whom the influential German daily Suddeutsche Zeitung described as “brazen, irritating and narcissistic”.

Followed by a pack of photographers, Mr Sarkozy and Ms Bruni, who turned 39 on Sunday, took a stroll through Egypt’s spectacular Valley of the Kings earlier in the week.

The couple giggled and whispered to each other like a pair of teenage sweethearts with Mr Sarkozy wrapping his arm around Ms Bruni’s waist. Mr Sarkozy flew into Egypt aboard a private jet loaned him by the powerful French industrialist Vincent Bollore.

Socialist leader Arnaud de Montebourg suggested the presidential office had been compromised because Mr Bollore “was bound to seek favours in return”. A similar controversy had erupted immediately after Mr Sarkozy’s presidential win in May 2007 when he went on holiday to Malta using Mr Bollore’s private jet and yacht.

“The people suffer while the King has fun,” remarked Socialist leader Segolene Royal who was defeated by Mr Sarkozy in the presidential election. “Mr Sarkozy should stop provoking us with his ostentatious behaviour,” Ms Royal said.

Extreme left leader Alain Krivine said: “Mr Sarkozy can go where he chooses with whom he chooses but the amount of money spent and so publicly too is a true provocation, especially at a time when he is asking people to tighten their belts.”

The French appear to be mesmerised by their new President and there has been little comment from the public except for a recent opinion poll in which a majority of those questioned said the President tended to “expose his private life too much”. However, a widely shared perception here is that Mr Sarkozy hurriedly went public with his romance to divert attention from Libyan leader Muammar Qadhafi’s disastrous five-day state visit to France. The country is currently somnolent due to the holiday season, but a public backlash when work begins next week cannot be ruled out.

The press across Europe has not been indulgent. “Mr Sarkozy’s predecessors also liked luxury. But with President Sarkozy, it quickly turns to vulgarity,” wrote German daily Suddeutsche Zeitung.

While the Berliner Zeitung said, “The French are only now realising how unpredictable this new Napoleon really is.”

Belgian Newspaper Le Soir deplored Mr. Sarkozy’s evident taste for celebrity status, saying “Sarko is ending 2007 self-assured and arrogant, hoping to throw a veil over his first real setbacks.”

Italy’s La Repubblica says in an editorial that France’s new President is “writing the epitaph” of the country’s current Fifth Republic inaugurated by General de Gaulle in 1958. “A President in short sleeves with his top buttons undone, who sports dark glasses like Alain Delon, receives his ministers with his legs on the table and is overfamiliar with everyone.”

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