Statue of Carla Bruni as factory worker sparks outrage in France

Europe Sun (ANI) Monday 13th February, 2012

A French mayor's plan to erect a life-size statue of President Nicolas Sarkozy's wife Carla Bruni sporting a factory worker's attire in a Paris suburb has angered the opposition and embarrassed the first lady.

Jacques Martin, the mayor of Nogent-sur-Marne to the east of Paris and member of President Sarkozy's UMP party, approved the statue to honour the mostly Italian immigrant women who used to work at a feather factory in the town.

The opposition and even the first lady's friends are fuming after the French daily Le Parisien first revealed the plan for the statue, which will be more than six-and-a-half feet tall, at a cost of over 80,000 euros.

A source close to Bruni said she agreed to model for sculptor Elisabeth Cibot as she admires her work, but that "it was never suggested that her name would appear".

Modelling "is her former job, she no longer does it commercially, but she's often asked to do it, and she often agrees, and always without being paid," the source said.

But the swiftly gathering scandal "is using something that has nothing to do with politics to political ends," one of her friends said, requesting anonymity.

William Geib of the Socialist opposition said the idea of dressing up a likeness of the Italian heiress and pop singer as a worker was "grotesque".

"It's an insult to the Italian feather workers, to give them the face of an extremely rich person. I have nothing against Carla Bruni-Sarkozy but she does not represent the workers' world," the Telegraph quoted him as saying

Michel Gilles, a local member of the right-wing opposition, slammed what he said was a "political coup" ahead of the April-May two-round presidential election, which opinion polls say right-wing leader Sarkozy is likely to lose.

Martin said he voted in favour of the statue at a council meeting last year.

"But it was never mentioned that it would have Carla Bruni-Sarkozy's features," Gilles said. (ANI)