Will Carla make Sarko the new JFK?
Carla B says that she would like to be considered as the new Jackie K. France's first lady, who is still Italian and not yet French, says in an interview this week that her principal role model is an American, Jackie Kennedy.
Carla Bruni-Sarkozy continues to take French public life into startlingly new territory – some might say alarmingly new. Her third folk-pop album, now in its third week at the top of the French charts, contains explicit references to sex and drugs of a kind which would have been banned in France two decades ago. This summer, the words of "Tu es ma came" (You are my dope) can be heard on every beach and in every camping site and traffic jam in France – sung by the President's wife.
Most people don't seem to mind very much though. Carla's opinion ratings are floating in the mid to high 60s. Has she become her husband's greatest political weapon, as the profile-interview in Vanity Fair claims? Hardly. Or at least not yet.
President Sarkozy remains stubbornly unpopular. The morale of French households slumped last month to its lowest level in more than two decades. The people of France, who were suspicious at first, have come to admire Carla Bruni-Sarkozy – her beauty, her cheek, her self-assurance, her good manners. None of that seems to have helped her husband very much. His popularity rating remains mired in the 30s or low 40s.
There are even whispers – nothing more substantial – that the President is growing tired of Carlamania. He is not a man who likes to share the limelight.
In an interview for a long article in Vanity Fair – part of an avalanche of Carlamania in print and film about to strike an eager globe this summer – Carla Bruni-Sarkozy says she is still uncertain of how to perform as First Lady. She is considering a charitable, or human rights activity, but has been remarkably inactive in those areas so far.
In the meantime, she says, yes, she would like to see herself as part of a new Kennedyesque dream couple, symbolising youth and energy and change. "She (Jackie) was so young and modern, and of course unconsciously I would project myself more like Jackie Kennedy than, for instance, Mme de Gaulle, who would be much more like the classical French woman behind her husband," she said. "There is a great photograph of Mme de Gaulle serving soup to her husband. I do serve soup to my husband sometimes, but I wouldn't get photographed that way."
There are few other great political insights, save, perhaps, the revelation that President Sarkozy was delighted, rather than dismayed, when old nude photos of his new wife appeared on the internet – and in the Daily Mail. To pre-empt her husband's anger, she says she showed him some of the images and said: "You must know this is going to come out." She claims he replied: "Oh, I like this one! Can I have a print?"
The right-wing President is married to a left-wing pop singer, and he wants to restore Catholicism to the heart of French life, while Carla Bruni, the former girlfriend of Mick Jagger, sings of sex and drugs.
Carla Bruni-Sarkozy has said that her husband is a misunderstood revolutionary, a man with "six brains" who "does not at all resemble" the dull, bourgeois, conservatives who belong to his party. She also says that she herself remains a "gut left-winger" who disapproves, for instance, of her husband's tough policies on immigration.
It is hard to imagine Jackie Kennedy taking issue with JFK's politics. In many ways, the comparison – though invited by Carla Bruni – is a false one. Carla Bruni-Sarkozy is a much more assured operator than Jackie Kennedy. France's First Lady is someone who has lived in the media glare all her life and knows which way to turn to best advantage, in both photographs and interviews.
Many of President Sarkozy's conservative supporters have been won over by her poise, intelligence and beauty. Others remain wary of her. The sight of her in a red dress on the Elysée roof will not calm their anxieties.
Perhaps the best clue to Carla Bruni-Sarkozy's character may be found in the lyrics of "Deranger les pierres" (overturning the stones), a pleasant song on her otherwise dull album. "I want to overturn the stones," she sings. "I want to caress the unknown."
Extracts from :
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world ... 80330.html
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