In fact, the French are enjoying a good laugh at the expense of Sarkozy, particularly after it emerged that a photo of him chipping at the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989, which the president posted on his Facebook site last week, was taken at least one day later, ‘The Sunday Times’ reported. Sarkozy’s desire to be at the centre of events has now been parodied in a series of spoof photographs, showing him leading the French to victory in the 1998 Football World Cup and storming the Bastille in 1789.
He has been shown seated next to Winston Churchill at the Yalta summit in 1945 and walking on the moon. In one of the snaps, he is recast as a member of Beatles. He “discovers” America, invents penicillin and wins an Olympic medal as well.
But, not all of the reaction to the Berlin Wall photograph was quite so good-humoured. Visitors to Sarkozy’s Facebook site accused Elysee Palace of censorship, complaining that negative comments about the President’s behaviour had been erased from the Internet.
A presidential spokesman, however, said only “hateful and vulgar” messages had been removed.
A taste for luxury watches, designer sunglasses and jewellery led to caricatures of him in the early days of his rule as “le president bling-bling”, but more recently comics have focused on his allegedly dictatorial bent: he is often parodied as Napoleon or Louis XIV.
The cartoonists had a field day with his marriage to Carla Bruni last year and much of the fun has revolved around the difference in height between the statuesque former model and the pint-sized President.