An online petition which has already has already attracted more than 100,000 signatories is demanding that Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, wife of former French president Nicolas Sarkozy, pay back 410,000 euros of public money that was used to fund her modest ‘First Lady’ website between 2011 and 2012. The cost was described as “mindblowing” by one web technology specialist, who added it was tantamount to “a finger pointed up high towards the taxpayer”. While Bruni-Sarkozy is threatening legal action against those who question her “honour”, the confused attempts to justify the sum have served to deepen the mystery of what it was spent on. Lorraine Kihl reports.
The French prison population this month reached a record 68,569, more than 10,000 more than the official capacity of jails, according to the latest official figures released Monday. While some prisons cope with an overpopulation of 200%, France’s general inspector of prisons and detention centres, Jean-Marie Delarue, warned of the risk of violent rebellion among prisoners this summer. The government, meanwhile, is under attack by magistrates’ unions for dithering over a decisive reform of what President Hollande himself described as his predecessor’s “blind rush for all-out incarceration”. Michel Deléan and Lorraine Kihl report.
