THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: France's presidential race descended into a battle of bling before it had begun yesterday as Left-wing favourite was criticised by the Right as a champagne Socialist after he was photographed getting into a Porsche.Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund has yet to say if he will run for president but is tipped in opinion polls to trounce President Nicolas Sarkozy if the two compete next April.
The photograph of DSK, as he is known, and his wife beside the Porsche Panamera, which sells in France for more than 100,000 euros (£88,000), sparked sneers on the internet and from the Right, even though it belonged to a friend and not to him.
Brice Hortefeux, the former interior minister and a close friend of President Nicolas Sarkozy, quipped that the Left had abandoned the symbols of the workers' struggle used when Socialist president, Francois Mitterrand, first took power.
"Back in 1981, it was the rose and the clenched fist. Today it's a Porsche at the wheel," Mr Hortefeux said. » | Henry Samuel, Paris | Friday, May 06, 2011
