13 October 2009 / AP, PARIS
President Nicolas Sarkozy's 23-year-old son is angling for a key job overseeing billions of euros in commerce at France's top business district -- a job critics say he does not deserve.
Jean Sarkozy's conservative backers insisted on Monday that he's qualified to chair EPAD, the quasi-governmental agency that manages the La Defense financial district on the western outskirts of Paris. The sprawling complex of skyscrapers houses the headquarters of some of Europe's biggest companies, such as oil giant Total and bank Societe Generale. Sarkozy, a law school student at the Sorbonne, is the main candidate for the chairmanship. Socialist Segolene Royal -- who lost to Nicolas Sarkozy in 2007 elections for the French presidency -- said she was “shocked” by his son's nomination. “If he did not have the name he has, would he be where he is today?” she asked on France's RTL radio.
