Alex Massie Alex Massie

Tough times at the Elysee Palace

Nicolas Sarkozy: still doing well for himself:

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Charles Bremner explains:

They don’t call him Speedy Sarko for nothing. It’s exactly two months since President Sarkozy very reluctantly confirmed that Cécilia, his wife, had left and divorced him. Today, he has presented France with a new girlfriend, Carla Bruni, who turns 39 this week. Sarko being Sarko, he chose as the venue the Christmas parade at Disneyland Paris. Bruni, a singer-songwriter and former model — who resembles Cécilia — is a household name in France and her native Italy… Known as a tempestuous and intellectual beauty, she is celebrated for a busy romantic life. Newspapers today discreetly mentioned her reputation as une dévoreuse d’hommes, a man-eater. Former close friends range from Mick Jagger and Eric Clapton to Laurent Fabius, the former Socialist Prime Minister and other famous actors and writers. A couple of years ago, Bruni featured as the villain in a book by Justine Lévy, daughter of Bernard-Henri Lévy, the thinker, after she departed with Lévy’s husband  Raphael Enthoven.  It was obvious that Sarkozy would move as fast as possible to fill the vacuum left by Cécilia’s absence and to shed the image of abandoned husband. He did the same when his wife left him temporarily in 2005, moving swiftly into a public relationship with Anne Fulda, a Figaro journalist, whom he dropped when Cécilia came back nine months later. At the time, Sarkozy said that never again would he discuss or show off his private life in public, but we knew he never meant it…

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