Sarkozy addresses the World Economic Forum, after spending £215m on modifying an airplane
With his supermodel wife and love of the finer things in life French President Nicolas Sarkozy has never seemed the modest type, but a recent article by The Sunday Times has revealed just how lavish a life he leads.
While the rest of France is being encouraged to tighten its belt during the economic recession an average day’s shopping list for the Elysée Palace includes £10,000 on food and drink and £1,000 on newspapers.
However one can assume all those newspapers are not going to waste, the Palace employs 1,045 people, with staff costs of £58 million.
Those lucky enough to be invited to the Palace are in for a treat. Sarkozy’s lunch guests regularly dine on lobster and £160 bottles of wine from a wine cellar stocked with 13,000 bottles. Meanwhile things are kept smelling sweet with £200,000 a year being spent on flowers.
The Sunday Times takes its information from a book published by René Dosière, a Socialist MP. The book calculates the Palace’s annual spend at £95 million.
However, the revelations of Sarkozy’s lavish lifestyle come at a critical time in the President’s political career, engaged as he is in a re-election campaign.
While Sarkozy’s government has been pushing austerity measures to the public the leader himself has been using taxpayers money to fund his lifestyle.
The President recently came under criticism when he sent a medical crew, via state owned private jet, to tend to his son in the Ukraine. The child had a stomach ache but it was the French taxpayers left smarting, with a bill of £15,600.
Meanwhile modifications to an Airbus A330 cost £215 million, according to Dosière’s book. This is more than double the figure that was officially declared and included the installation of a oven and electric blinds, costing £900,000.
The Sunday Times quotes Dosière saying, ‘It seems that the transparency announced by the presidency of the republic is far from being complete.’
Details of the luxurious excesses enjoyed by the elite appear to have struck a nerve with the French public. Sarkozy’s popularity rating was recently figured at 23%, while his political opponent François Hollande of the French Socialist Party, leads with 30%.
Read more about Sarkozy’s spending here.
