London: Carla Bruni`s passion for freshly
cut flowers may have landed her husband President Nicolas
Sarkozy in fresh controversy as the French leader was asked to
trim the exorbitant flower bill of the Elysée Palace.
The effort of President Sarkozy to open Elysée Palace
to greater "transparency" may have backfired on him as its
account revealed a colossal waste of public money amid the
worst economic recession in generations.
Apart from Sarkozy, the 41-year-old former Italian
supermodel-turned-pop singer is particularly fond of fresh
flowers, and is frequently pictured arranging huge vases full
of them inside the Elysee.
Philippe Séguin, the state auditor, recommended
cutting the floral bill after the first inspection revealed
that his palace spent 600 pounds a day on bouquets.
The exorbitant florist’s bill can be attributed to the
president’s wife, who has a passion for freshly cut flowers,
a newspaper said.
Though her predecessor, Bernadette Chirac, had a
similar obsession, particularly for roses, she checked the
bill by growing them in the palace.
Recommending a cut in the floral bill, the auditor
complained the palace always went to the same suppliers even
if it meant paying twice as much, according to the British
daily.
The grand annual July 14 garden party had been
organised by the same firm since 1995 and cost 250,000 pounds
in 2008, even though a competitor had offered to stage it for
160,000 pounds, the report said.
Many have begun to see the President Sarkozy, with his
glamorous wife, as one of the old French monarchs. A magazine
recently nicknamed Bruni "Madame de Pompadour" after the
influential mistress of Louis XV.
Carla was in the news recently when she broke her vow
not to perform in public until her husband leaves office as
she sang at a star-studded concert in New York to mark the
91st-birthday of anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela.
Dressed in a swish black trouser suit and strumming
her guitar, she sang two duets -- the first was Bruni`s most
popular song, Quelqu`un m`a dit, (Someone told me), a folksy
ballad with unmistakably existentialist lyrics.
Bureau Report
