THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: President Nicolas Sarkozy's party allies demanded a public apology from his main electoral opponent after he reportedly branded him a "nasty piece of work".
Francois Hollande, the opposition Socialist candidate currently on course to beat Mr Sarkozy in April's election, allegedly called the president a "sale mec", which roughly translates as a "nasty piece of work".
He made the remark in a supposedly off-the-record briefing for reporters on Tuesday, but a truncated version of his jibe was revealed in the daily Le Parisien.
Although dismissed as being taken out of context by the Socialist camp, a cohort of outraged Sarkozy allies seized on the "insult".
Dominique Dord, treasurer of Sarkozy's UMP party, described the reported comment as "revolting" and said that Mr Hollande should pull out of the presidential race, little more than 100 days before the election.
"We are all deeply shocked," said the head of Sarkozy's UMP party, Jean-Francois Cope.
"This is not the standard expected of a presidential candidate," said government minister Nadine Morano, one of many other UMP party members to pounce on the reported comment. "I demand a public apology."
Le Parisien reported the term as an insult, but others present at the lunch said it was not a direct attack but part of an imagined dialogue in which Mr Hollande played Mr Sarkozy. » | Henry Samuel, Paris | Wednesday, January 04, 2012
