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Interfering in politics is just not my style, insists Carla
Peter Allen26 Jan 2009
Carla Bruni-Sarkozy has made an impassioned television denial that she was making political decisions.
The surprise move by the French first lady follows weeks of speculation that she has growing influence at the Elysée Palace in Paris, deciding on everything from ministerial firings to which personal trainer is used by her husband, president Nicolas Sarkozy.
When justice minister Rachida Dati was unceremoniously told she was to be sacked on Friday, many believed Mrs Bruni-Sarkozy was behind the decision to ditch her former love rival.
The former supermodel appeared on television last night to deny she had anything to do with persuading Brazil to grant asylum to an Italian terrorist. She said: “I am very surprised the Italian media should think I played such a role,” adding: “I would never dare — first of all because it is not my ideology. I have never tried to defend Cesare Battisti.”
Convicted murderer Battisti fled his homeland in 1981 after escaping from prison and absconding to Brazil, which last week refused to deport him back to Italy.
Mrs Bruni-Sarkozy, who spent Christmas in Brazil where she met head of state Lula da Silva, vehemently denied any involvement in the decision. She added: “The wife of a president of the Republic would never go and talk to the Brazilian president about something that has nothing to do with France.”
But there were signs of her influence in October over the release of Marina Petrella, another Italian terrorist. Mrs Bruni-Sarkozy convinced him to drop a court order to deport Petrella who, like Battisti, was in the Red Brigades. Her intervention and the presidential U-turn sparked fury, especially among Italians who has been seeking Mrs Petrella's extradition from France since she escaped in 1986 while on bail for murder, kidnap and armed robbery.
The French were also angry that an unelected model-turned-pop singer was apparently taking highly sensitive decisions concerned with international terrorism. The Communist Red Brigades was accused of dozens of murders in the Seventies and Eighties.
Last week it was revealed that Mrs Bruni-Sarkozy had introduced a 26-year-old female personal trainer to her husband, to help him lose weight and improve his sexual technique.
Reader views (1)
Poor Sarkozy!
- Fab Bro, london, uk, 26/01/2009 16:47
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