Sarkozy attacked over luxury cruise

Incoming French leader Nicolas Sarkozy was embroiled in a row over his stay on a luxury yacht yesterday, two days after winning election with a campaign to lift low wages and help hard-working families.

After Sunday's victory, Mr Sarkozy dined with friends in a top Paris restaurant, then jetted off with his family to a luxury yacht off Malta, as staffers worked on strategy for June parliamentary polls and a Cabinet line-up.

Mr Sarkozy's aides said the break would allow the President-elect acclimatise to his new role as head of state, but critics said it clashed with his campaign concerns over low living standards of French households.

"It sends a disastrous signal to the country, notably the 53 per cent of French people who earn less than 800 a month and who voted for him," said Patrick Menucci, a former adviser to defeated Socialist presidential candidate Segolene Royal.

LCI television said the vessel cost €200,000 a week to hire and Jean-Louis Bourlanges, a European deputy of the centrist UDF party, attacked the stay as a "needlessly ostentatious luxury".

A Sarkozy aide could not confirm the yacht belonged to media mogul Vincent Bolloré. During his campaign, critics attacked Mr Sarkozy's close ties to France's media barons. Mr Sarkozy was expected to return to Paris for tomorrow's commemoration of the abolition of slavery, a gesture to those opposed to his selective immigration policies and angered by his hardline policies during his time as interior minister.

The yacht row will be an unwelcome distraction for Mr Sarkozy, who needs a strong majority from June elections to the National Assembly to back a reform effort led by his new prime minister.

British government sources quoted by the Financial Times appeared to confirm an open secret that Francois Fillon will get the job. The daily said Mr Sarkozy had introduced Mr Fillon as France's next Prime Minister during a phone call with British leader Tony Blair on Sunday. A Sarkozy aide declined to comment.

If confirmed in office when Mr Sarkozy takes power on May 16, Mr Fillon will face union opposition to the new leaders' plan for a mandatory minimum service during public sector transport strikes and secret ballots after eight days of strike action.

The major Force Ouvriere union warned on Monday any attempt to drive through change without consultation could backfire, raising questions about Mr Sarkozy's ability to effect major change without provoking a wave of debilitating protests.

"Nicolas Sarkozy has no intention at all of ramming things through," his right-hand man Claude Gueant told LCI television.