PARIS – French president Nicolas Sarkozy said yesterday his undergraduate son was being unfairly victimised for trying to take charge of the public agency that oversees development of Paris’s business district.
Opposition leaders have accused Mr Sarkozy of nepotism and say his 23-year-old son, Jean, is not experienced enough to manage La Défense – a cluster of skyscrapers on the edge of Paris which aims to rival London as Europe’s main financial centre.
The choice of who will get the job will be decided by the agency’s board members in December.
More than 40,000 people have signed an online petition calling for Jean Sarkozy to pull out of the running.
President Sarkozy, who ran the agency himself until just before his election as president in 2007, told reporters the attacks on Jean were unjustified. “It is never right when someone is thrown to the wolves without any reason and in an excessive fashion,” he said shortly after giving a speech where he praised France for being a country where ability rather than privilege secured success.
“What counts in France is not to be born to a wealthy family, but to have worked hard and to have proved your worth through your studies and your labour,” he said.
Jean Sarkozy, the president’s second son from his first marriage, also dismissed the controversy, insisting he was working his way up the political ladder in an honest fashion. – (Reuters)