French President Nicolas Sarkozy has made British MPs’ expenses look like chump change, with a new report finding he spent £160m (AU$290m) during his six-month stint in charge of the European Union, including £250,000 on a new shower that he never actually used.
Nicolas Sarkozy 
Pursuit of economic growth is a failure
The pursuit of economic growth has failed. It has failed on its own terms, it has failed to deliver a good life for all, and it’s now in the process of destroying the planet, writes Professor Tim Jackson.
The French Model: famous for finances, not fashion
For once, the French economic model isn’t being ridiculed, with France proving resilient amongst the GFC doom and gloom. But will they face a new debt crisis?
Political snippets: Libs need to start playing the blame game
If the Libs want to get Kevin Rudd, what is needed are lots of horrid pictures of suffering people all caused by Federal Labor’s inability to carry out the commitments made so blithely by Mr All Talk — No Action man.
The grim reality that is France, happiness indexes notwithstanding
The French way of life can be as brutal and nasty as any other around the world and no amount of papering over with nice talk can avoid the facts.
Political snippets: What Sarkozy could learn from Hawke
France’s short-statured President Sarkozy could gain a few inches with a Bob Hawke bouffant haircut, the GFC hits casinos, and more insights from Richard Farmer.
Sarkozy, the self-hating Frenchman
He jogs, he diets, he’s actually jealous of Britain and he … doesn’t drink wine. Sacre bleu, is President Nicolas Sarkozy even French? asks Hugo Rifkind.
How to jog without falling down
French president Nicolas Sarkozy collapsed recently while jogging in Versailles. Looks like it was a case of overdoing it. Or medically speaking, a vasovagal episode. BBC asks just how risky jogging is.
Sarkozy takes a tumble
Despite being so well-known as a super-fit running fanatic he is mocked as “Nike-olas”, 54-year-old French President Nicolas Sarkozy has been taken to hospital after collapsing during a midday run.
Sarkozy really likes flowers
French president Nicolas Sarkozy spends £660 a day on flowers, according to the presidential accounts. That’s more than Elton John, says The Guardian wanting to underline the excess.
The Obama perve that wasn’t
In a photo that made its way around the world, Obama appears to check out a woman with a lovely behind at the G8. It wasn’t really a true moment (as video later showed) but that didn’t stop news outlets.
G8: it’s no G20
Leaders of the Group of Eight nations have met in L’Aquila to tackle issues like the GFC, climate change, hunger and poverty — but apart from Obama and Sarkozy, it’s hardly a star-studded line-up.
More coverage
Sarkozy’s proposed burqua ban is a blunt instrument
There is no single experience of face-covering, just as there is no single experience of the bikini, writes Shakira Hussein.
Why Sarkozy wants to ban the burqa
French President Nicolas Sarkozy has made waves with his calls to ban the burqa from being worn in public. His sentiments are caught up in a collision of French feminism, nationalism and secularism.
Is the burqa a prison?
French President Nicolas Sarkozy has declared the Islamic burqua a sign of the “subjugation” and “submission of women”. But what if a woman chooses to wear it of her own accord? asks Salon’s Broadsheet.
Sarkozy’s grand cultural revolution
In recent weeks French MPs have a new game to play with their maverick, megalomanic leader: spot the cultural reference, writes Jason Burke.
The last dictator of France
The death of Gabonese President Omar Bongo — France’s last old-style dictator-patriarch in Africa — has sparked renewed debate in France’s role over its former colonies.
Sarko the sex dwarf
Nicolas Sarkozy is the President the French love to hate. Lucy Wadham thinks the cliché of a “nation of adolescents in search of a strong father figure” to rebel against holds true in his case.
France’s latest pandemic: Anti-Sarkozysm
Two years into Mr Sarkozy’s term in office, intense and obsessive dislike of the president—anti-sarkozysme—is fast becoming the defining feature of French opposition politics.
Media briefs: The Hun: So glossy it hurts
Iran jails US journalist “spy”… Television more important than human life… e-books vs. newspapers
Sarkozy bails out newspapers, again
Will a 200 million euro package of assistance to the French newspaper industry have any impact at all when state aid is already at 280 million a year? asks Glenn Dyer.
Rudd, Bush, Sarkozy, Howard… where did the love go?
Had enough of G20-speakerphone-dinner-that-wasn’t-a-dinner-Dubya’s-an-idiot-no-Rudd’s-an-idiot gate yet? At Crikey we’re just getting warmed up, writes Bernard Keane.
Tips and rumours
I was on a scheduled flight from Paris Orly airport to Marrakesh on Royal Air Maroc last week and the last passenger to board was French President Nicolas Sarkozy. After a quick wave and smile to the peasants in cattle class, el Presidente and his entourage of three clip-board wielding flunkies made themselves comfortable in the […]
Sarkozy takes a knife to the military
French president Nicolas Sarkozy is battling the military, writes Charles Richardson.
