Sailing Isn't So Smooth For Sarkozy
As France's Incoming President Relaxes in Luxury, Critics Fume

By Molly Moore
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, May 10, 2007

PARIS, May 9 -- Nicolas Sarkozy won the French presidency Sunday, told his countrymen to start working harder, then promptly took his family for a cruise on a billionaire buddy's 200-foot yacht off the coast of Malta in the Mediterranean Sea.

Thus the first scandal of the Sarkozy presidency was born. Political opponents called the timing and the opulence of the vacation "indecent." Wednesday's newspapers carried grainy front-page photographs of President-elect Sarkozy in saffron shorts with his 10-year-old son, Louis, standing on the deck of what one headline dubbed "the floating palace."

"I have no intention of apologizing," a defiant Sarkozy, 52, told a pool of French journalists Wednesday morning after jogging on a small island off the Malta coast. "I'll be president of the republic in eight days. In theory I could have rested for eight days, but I'll only take two and one-half. No one can argue with that."

And it's not as if he's just been lounging on the yacht, whose amenities include an on-deck hot tub. "I met with the Malta president and received 20 calls from international leaders," Sarkozy said, his black T-shirt soaked in sweat.

But the controversy is not about the vacation -- this is a country that reveres holidays. It's about the image of excess, according to analysts and politicians, from a politician who promised three days ago to be the "president of the people." It's about Sarkozy's longtime cozy relationships with France's rich and famous and what that means for the future independence of the presidency. It's about the French disdain of ostentatious displays of wealth and suspicion of the wealthy.

It didn't help that anarchists, losing Socialist Party sympathizers and angry youths have been clashing with police on the streets of Paris and other major French cities for the last three nights in protest of Sarkozy's victory Sunday.

François Hollande, the Socialist Party leader and the common-law husband of failed Socialist candidate Ségolène Royal, said Sarkozy certainly deserved a family vacation after the grueling campaign.

"What causes a problem is the style of the holiday," Hollande said. "The fact that he is on the boat of a rich businessman and we don't know today if the republic is assuming the cost of the trip."

The gleaming white yacht Paloma, with its 12 staterooms, is owned by Vincent Bolloré, a 55-year-old billionaire who Forbes magazine lists as No. 13 among France's wealthiest citizens. A longtime friend of Sarkozy, Bolloré owns an advertising company, television station, and transportation and logistics businesses and has personal wealth estimated at $2.1 billion.

Sarkozy bristled Wednesday at criticism of their friendship. "I've known Vincent Bolloré for 20 years," he said. "He's invited me for 20 years and I've refused for 20 years. Vincent Bolloré is a great French industrialist. He's never worked with the state."

Sarkozy added that his use of the yacht "didn't cost the taxpayers one cent."

The French news media were quick to point out Wednesday that the sleek craft -- which comes with two jet skis, kayaks and diving equipment and an elegant dining room with a wall-mounted plasma screen television -- would rent for up to $38,000 a day on the commercial yachting market.

"The problem with his rich industrialist friends like Bolloré is that they're liable to ask for something in return," said Hervé Nathan, an editorial writer for the weekly magazine Marianne, which wrote scathing articles about Sarkozy during the campaign.

One of the guests at Sarkozy's private victory dinner Sunday night at the venerable Fouquet's brasserie on the Champs Elysee was France's most famous rock singer, Johnny Hallyday, who moved to Switzerland to escape France's high taxes. Hallyday announced Wednesday that he'll be moving back to France soon because of Sarkozy's promise to cut taxes for the country's wealthiest citizens.

Back on the jogging trail, Sarkozy said that "after what my family has gone through, I had to be with them in a quiet place."

The French news media have been rife with speculation that his marriage is on the rocks. He and his wife, Cécilia, split two years ago after she was photographed holding hands with her purported lover in New York, and though she and her husband have reconciled, she was largely absent from his campaign. She has indicated she has no burning desire to play the role of first lady of France.

The Malta trip was hardly a romantic interlude, however. Their entourage aboard the yacht included five bodyguards, a 17-member boat crew and a handful of close political advisers.

Sarkozy, who was scheduled to return to Paris on Wednesday night, is not the first political leader to be chastised for emulating the celebrity lifestyle. Last December, the British press lambasted Prime Minister Tony Blair for sponging off Robin Gibb by spending a family holiday at the former Bee Gees star's multimillion-dollar mansion in Miami. Bill Clinton was much criticized for mooching off friends with summer houses on Martha's Vineyard.

Such comparisons were not lost on the French. The daily newspaper L'Independent du Midi said Wednesday that Sarkozy "will be our first American-style president," noting that he is a "great admirer of the country where money and luxury are considered as mandatory symbols of success."

Researcher Corinne Gavard contributed to this report.