TIMESONLINE: rance broke with an age of presidential decorum yesterday when Nicolas Sarkozy used the majesty of the Élysée Palace to discuss his love life and announce his likely marriage to Carla Bruni, the model-turned-folk singer.
Mr Sarkozy said that he wanted to “break with a deplorable tradition in our country of hypocrisy and lies” by airing his liaison with the Italian former supermodel at his first formal news conference since his election last May. The public has been both fascinated and appalled by “Speedy Sarko’s” whirlwind romance since his divorce from Cécilia, his second wife.
François Fillon, the Prime Minister, and all Cabinet and presidential staff were arrayed before Mr Sarkozy in the gilded ballroom to hear him preview the coming year with 600 journalists in a ritual that was devised by Charles de Gaulle in the early 1960s.
After an hour-long speech on the “new civilisation” he plans for France, Mr Sarkozy was asked about reports that he would marry Ms Bruni on February 9. “It is serious,” he said. “But it is not the [Sunday newspaper] which will set the date. There are strong chances that you will hear about it when it has already happened.”
In October Mr Sarkozy, 52, announced his divorce two days after the event. In late November he met Ms Bruni, 39, a former companion of Sir Mick Jagger and Eric Clapton. He appeared before photographers with her at Disneyland Paris three weeks later and has since taken her on trips to Egypt and Jordan.
Mr Sarkozy’s relaxed discussion of his “right to happiness” marked a further breach with the stuffy ways of the monarchical republic. Until “Super-Sarko”, French presidents up to Jacques Chirac enjoyed liaisons free of media scrutiny. In the 1970s Valéry Giscard d’Estaing was known to spend nights away from his wife, and from 1981 to 1995 François Mitterrand kept a mistress and their daughter as well as his official family at state expense.
Mr Sarkozy said: “You wouldn’t have asked that question of any of my predecessors. I reflected a lot on this,” he said. Alluding to Mitterrand, he said: “Everyone knew. No one talked about it. With Carla, we decided not to lie . . . I didn’t want them to take a sordid photo of me early in the morning,” he said. He recalled that Mitterrand flew both his households in state aircraft to holiday on the Nile, where Mr Sarkozy and Ms Bruni spent Christmas, travelling on the private jet of a friend.
“I don’t allow myself to judge my predecessors. Everyone must live as they see fit. Life is so difficult and painful,” he said. 'Speedy Sarko' speaks out on Carla Bruni, marriage and the right to happiness >>> By Charles Bremner in Paris
TIMESONLINE:
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