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French First Lady Skips Bush Lunch Date

Reuters
Posted: 2007-08-13 13:28:31
PARIS (Aug. 13) -- Capricious, mercurial or just unlucky? The failure of France's first lady to show up to lunch with President Bush has once again raised questions about Cecilia Sarkozy's character.

President Nicolas Sarkozy unexpectedly arrived alone for the informal gathering at a Bush family compound in Maine on Saturday, near the luxury lakeside residence where the French leader and his wife are spending their holidays.

Photo Gallery: Where Was France's First Lady?

Dimitar Dilkoff, AFP / Getty Images

France's first lady Cecilia Sarkozy, here in July, was expected to visit the Bush family compound in Maine with her husband on Saturday.

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Sarkozy said his wife was suffering from a severe sore throat and could not make the journey, but the fact Cecilia was spotted shopping with friends on both Friday and Sunday raised eyebrows back home.

"Cecilia has set a new record for making a swift recovery," a news reader said dryly on France Inter radio on Monday.

The no-show came just weeks after Cecilia made a spectacular foray into international politics by apparently helping to broker the release of Bulgarian medics imprisoned in Libya, and left commentators puzzling over her motives.

"With every day that passes, the mystery deepens: Who is Cecilia Sarkozy?" French regional newspaper Le Telegramme wrote in its Monday edition.

"What does the wife of the president of the republic want? To live her life as she likes, without constraint? In which case, why does she accept invitations, like that made personally by Laura Bush?" it added, saying that U.S. first lady Laura had personally organized the lunch with Cecilia.

French papers quoted doctors as saying sore throats could flare like a summer storm, but it was not the first time that Cecilia had failed to stand by her man at an important moment.

After playing virtually no part in her husband's election campaign earlier this year, she famously failed to turn out to vote for him in the second round ballot on May 6.

This snub provoked widespread speculation that the couple, who briefly separated in 2005, were set to divorce, but Cecilia proved the gossip-mongers wrong by turning up at her husband's inauguration ceremony and stealing the show in a stylish dress.

However, the whispering resumed weeks later when she stayed barely 24 hours at the three-day G8 summit of world power leaders in Germany, and then when she snubbed a concert on the July 14 national Bastille day holiday.

"People will no doubt accuse us of making too much of these absences," regional daily Charente Libre wrote on Monday, suggesting that her absence on Saturday came close to causing a diplomatic incident between the United States and France.

"But, without doubt, we would have paid less attention to this American episode if it hadn't been for the fact that Cecilia was so obviously prominent in Tripoli, at the request of her husband the president."

Her intervention on behalf of the Bulgarian nurses suggested she was seeking an unprecedented role in a country where first ladies are expected to be seen, not heard in politics.

Sarkozy has said Cecilia will announce in September what she plans to do during his presidency, but she has already made clear that whatever she does, it will be unconventional.

"I don't see myself as a first lady. It bores me. I'm not politically correct," she told an interviewer two years ago.

Copyright 2008 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon. All active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.
2007-08-13 12:07:09
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Recent Comments

1 - 10 of 344
344 comments

mquency71 02:06:28 PM Aug 14 2007

You know what? I am so sick of the citizens here that constantly cause me to question the good points of being an American. If they did'nt vote to put this joke of a man into the White House, then they did'nt question the circumstances under which he was "installed", or... they simply said nothing. He had no qualifications: business, political or competence to lead Texas, let alone an entire country. It seemed that the only people who shared my concerns were the foreign press and they succeeded - with Dubya's help- in highlighting his "idiot-syncrasies." The point I wish to make is that I have no respect for George Bush and the only way I would be in his company (or the rest of the Bush administration) is if I were standing inside of a five star pentagram( and to not confuse Bush supporters....I am referring to demonology). I as a human being could not possibly be in the company of a person I thought of as an incompetent whose glaring lies has opened a Pandora's box of world misery

MStermolle 12:58:28 PM Aug 14 2007

"Promptshipping" you are an idiot. Regardless of your political feeling about the President and First Lady, this is a slap in the face of all Americans, yes including you. I am proud to be an American, I stand beside our President and First Lady. If you would stop and think, they are part of the American Family, it's one thing for us to be upset with them, but no one outside the American Family better mess with them. If you accept an invitation from someone for lunch and then you just don't show up. That is so rude and uncalled for. This is a low point even for the French.

caribaffairs 12:43:55 PM Aug 14 2007

what would a vibrant, obviously polictically aware woman have to say to laura bush?

dpirie1996 12:34:00 PM Aug 14 2007

Sounds like she may have had too much Two Buck Chuck. Better than French wine.

MeetSiggy 12:06:22 PM Aug 14 2007

Remind me again why we need the French?

williemojorisin 11:50:10 AM Aug 14 2007

raymondo salame IS AN ILLEGAL ALIEN

dsrtjoe 11:50:02 AM Aug 14 2007

She probably just ran out of puke bags, an item as necessary as a fork or a spoon when dining with with the Bushes.

williemojorisin 11:48:31 AM Aug 14 2007

UGLY STUCK UP BIT@H , SHE DIDNT EVEN VOTE FOR HER OWN HUSBAND ? WTF ? HER FACE LOOKS PLASTIC , WITH THE MONEY THEY HAVE YOU'D THINK HER TEETH WOULD BE IN BETTER CONDITION , FRENCHIE GO HOME

genthomp 11:12:00 AM Aug 14 2007

It looks clearly as if this nightmare of a "French First Lady" is working hard to ruin her husband's presidency, in addition to being just plain RUDE.

dwmessig 10:58:12 AM Aug 14 2007

The French; now that they acknowledge that California wines are superior what do we need them for?

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