Sarkozy under fire for sacking officials

French President Nicolas Sarkozy was accused yesterday of behaving like an autocrat after two local officials were dismissed for allowing noisy protests during a visit he made to a northern town this month.

Opposition Socialists and even some members of Mr Sarkozy's own centre-right UMP party criticised the "scandalous" removal of the two officials who were blamed for not stopping a protest from disrupting Mr Sarkozy's visit to the town of Saint Lo on January 12.

"You feel as though you're living in another age," said Marisol Touraine, a Socialist parliamentary deputy with party responsibility for security issues. "This is like some prince ruling from on high in its arbitrariness."

The removals followed a case last year when a senior security official in Corsica was sacked after nationalist demonstrators briefly occupied a holiday villa owned by one of Mr Sarkozy's close friends.