French President In Hot Water Over Private Jet Flight

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed)
Dec 27th 2007 at 10:02AM

French president Nicolas Sarkozy has a lifestyle most celebrities would envy. Not only does he have a gorgeous model girlfriend who used to date rock stars, he also spent his Christmas holiday in Egypt. The French are notoriously tolerant of the leaders' foibles but Sarkozy found himself in a spot of trouble for flying to his getaway on the private jet of a billionaire businessman. Once again, Vincent Bollore is the billionaire in question. After his election in May, Sarkozy celebrated on Bollore's private yacht off Malta. Opposing political parties are concerned that the president's love of the jet set life may lead him into falling under the influence of rich men like Bollore. What's even more interesting is that Bollore, in addition to running a business empire with interests in freight, plastics, energy and logistics, also owns two free newspapers in France and has expressed interest in taking over the French domestic operation of US news agency AP. Sounds like Sarkozy should fly commercial next time.

Tags: france, nicolas sarkozy, NicolasSarkozy, private jet