Is French President Nicolas Sarkozy about to get married again?
Under the headline "Marriage Imminent," the weekly Le Journal du Dimanche, citing several unidentified sources, reported on Sunday that Sarkozy would marry his girlfriend -- former supermodel Carla Bruni -- on Feb. 8 or Feb. 9.
The recently divorced French leader has flaunted their unmarried relationship on recent holidays in Egypt and Jordan, fanning criticism that he is playing too fast and loose with the presidential image -- and reportedly giving protocol planners elsewhere fits.
The newspaper report said that last month -- less than a month after Sarkozy met Bruni -- he gave her a heart-shaped diamond engagement ring.
The presidential palace declined to comment on the report.
Political analyst Dominique Moisi said that a Sarkozy proposal to Bruni could be part of his desire to head off any future controversies, and its speed would fit with his personality as a busy man in a hurry.
"Apparently, he's going to be marry her, so the problem will be behind him," Moisi said. "He will multiply the opportunities to travel with her, [and] to say to the French, `You see, I must remarry ... You need a first lady.'"
"He's trying to seduce the French," Moisi said.
Sarkozy and his wife of 11 years, Cecilia, divorced in October. Their marital problems became well known in May 2005 when she appeared in public at the side of event organizer Richard Attias.
A marriage to Bruni, a one-time star of the catwalks who is now a singer, would be Sarkozy's third: He divorced his first wife, Marie, in the late 1980s -- after he had met and befriended Cecilia.
Bruni, an Italian-born French citizen, has dated other famous men, including Rolling Stone Mick Jagger and business tycoon Donald Trump.
Sarkozy, a reform-minded conservative with a pro-US slant, has sought to shake France out of what he considers its hidebound ways by trimming bureaucracy and revving up a stalled economy.
But polls suggest the French are less eager to part with a tradition in which their presidents have kept quiet about their private lives and discretion about amorous matters has been the norm.
"The French reproach Nicolas Sarkozy for making his private life too visible -- that he goes a bit too far," said Francois Miquet-Marty, head of political studies at the polling group LH2 Opinion. "But people are able to separate his professional duties from his private life. It does not seem to affect their overall view about him."
The relationship has emerged as polls show many in France are growing increasingly wary about Sarkozy's bold campaign-trail promises for change before his election in May. And it is likely to be on many minds when Sarkozy holds a news conference today.
A poll published on Sunday in the weekly Le Parisien Dimanche found that less than half of the respondents -- 48 percent -- had confidence in Sarkozy to solve the country's biggest problems, down 7 percentage points from last month. Forty-five percent did not, with the rest undecided. The telephone poll of 1,010 adults was conducted on Thursday and Friday.
Abroad, Sarkozy's relationship with Bruni has drawn both criticism and confusion.
In India, which Sarkozy is reportedly expected to visit in coming weeks, recent news reports say diplomatic officials have been grappling with how to handle protocol if Bruni accompanies him.
Citing unidentified sources at India's Ministry of External Affairs, the newspaper Indian Express reported that Bruni could not receive a reception on a par with that of a president's spouse.
SPEAKING OUT: After Siranudh Scott’s allegations surfaced, celebrities and public figures took to social media to share their own experiences of sexual misconduct and abuse A high-profile alleged sexual abuse case within a wealthy Thai beer brewing family has prompted a wave of painful accounts from survivors of unconnected abuse in the conservative nation. Siranudh Scott, a member of the billionaire Thai family that founded the ubiquitous Singha beer brand, posted an emotional video this month accusing his elder brother Sunit of repeatedly abusing him when he was a teenager. Sunit, who is in his 30s, later denied the allegations in a video posted online, but Singha parent Boonrawd dismissed him from his executive role with the company on Tuesday last week. “I felt I needed to speak
SEEKING ORDER: Rodrigo Paz said that ‘anyone who wants to destroy the nation will have to deal with this president and the full force of the constitution’ Bolivian President Rodrigo Paz on Wednesday said that the nation was at a “breaking point” after nearly a month of protests that have caused shortages of food, fuel and medicine. Paz, who took office six months ago amid the worst economic crisis there in four decades, is battling a groundswell of fury over his policies. The political capital, La Paz, has been besieged by low-income workers and members of the indigenous majority calling for his resignation. “The country needs order and is reaching breaking point,” the 58-year-old said at a public event in La Paz, renewing his appeal for dialogue. On Tuesday, the Bolivian
A Hong Kong astronaut is to join a Chinese space mission for the first time as part of a three-person crew launching today, as Beijing edges closer to its goal of landing people on the moon. The Tiangong space station — crewed by teams of three astronauts that are typically rotated every six months — is the crown jewel of China’s space program, boosted by billions in state investment in a bid to catch up with the US and Russia. The Shenzhou-23 mission is to blast off at 11:08pm from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwestern China, carrying three astronauts to
UPGRADED ALERT: The risk inside DR Congo is now considered ‘very high,’ while neighboring countries face a ‘high’ threat as the outbreak continues, the WHO said Ebola is spreading faster than responders can track it in eastern Congo, where health workers managed to follow up with barely one in five identified contacts in a single day. Authorities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo) reported 83 confirmed infections, 746 suspected cases and 1,603 identified contacts as of Thursday, but health workers were able to follow up on only 342 contacts that day — about 21 percent of the total under monitoring — data released by the DR Congo Ministry of Public Health on Friday showed. The figures suggest the response is falling behind the outbreak itself,
RSS