President Nicolas Sarkozy has come to the defense of his son, denying in an interview made public Thursday that he is behind the 23-year-old's much-criticized bid for a high-profile job.

 

"Who is being targeted in this controversy? It's not my son, it's me," Sarkozy said in an interview to appear in Friday's daily Le Figaro.

 

Jean Sarkozy has no college degree and is still studying law but launched a political career last year, following in his father's footsteps.

 

However, a growing number of critics say Jean Sarkozy is too inexperienced to follow his father's footsteps to the next goal — heading an organization that runs La Defense, a complex of glassy skyscrapers on the western edge of Paris that is one of Europe's leading business districts.

 

Jean Sarkozy de Nagy-Bocsa (born 1 September 1986 at Neuilly-sur-Seine) is the son of the President of France, Nicolas Sarkozy from his first marriage, to Marie-Dominique Culioli. Jean is a regional councillor in the city of Neuilly-sur-Seine, France and registered as a 1st year Law student at Paris 1 Pantheon-Sorbonne University in 2007. He is a backroom activist for his father's Union for a Popular Movement (UMP), a right-wing party. He is also an amateur actor.  

 

Neuilly-sur-Seine mayorship

 

Nicolas Sarkozy attempted to parachute David Martinon, his protégé and presidential spokesman, into the mayorship of Neuilly-sur-Seine, the richest town in France, where the president had formerly served as mayor. It was seen as one of the UMP's safest seats because 86% of the voters supported Sarkozy in the 2007 presidential election. Jean Sarkozy was asked to persuade the voters to support his father's choice. After a poll showed that Martinon was so unpopular that he would lose the election, Jean publicly broke rank and said it was impossible to continue backing his father's mayoral choice. He and other politicians from the president's centre-right UMP party decided to campaign on their own ticket.    Martinon stepped down as the party’s candidate for mayor. Jean Sarkozy announced he was running for office himself as the UMP candidate for regional councillor in the electoral district of Neuilly-Sud. He was born, raised and now lives in Neuilly-Sud, which includes the Bagatelle quarter, a neighbourhood of 27,000 people, the richest part of Neuilly. He faced three other candidates, Marie Brannens from the Socialist Party, and candidates from the Democratic Movement (MoDem) and the Front National.  

 La Défense controversy

 

In 2009 Jean was offered to become head of Epad, the development agency for La Défense, just west of Paris. La Défense is an important office center, with 43 high-rise buildings, and its development agency controls an annual budget of more than 1 billion euros. French newspapers report this as a new case of nepotism. Much criticism has been made about the obvious lack of academic qualities and professional experience for such a high position. An online petition against the nomination has been diffused in all of the major news outlets and receives some 10,000 signatures a day.   

 

The controversy prompted various ironic comments from the international press. The Daily Mail noted that "when asked whether the President's son might be a bit young for such a relatively prestigious job, [EPAD's current president] responded using the traditional French political foil of quoting classic literature: 'In souls nobly born, valour does not depend upon age'".    The Times calls the nomination an "astonishing act of nepotism by Nicolas Sarkozy" and reminds that "[Jean], who is repeating his second year of undergraduate law at the Sorbonne, was elected to a Neuilly seat on the notoriously sleaze-ridden departement council last year. He was immediately given the job of heading Dad's Union for a Popular Movement on the body."  

 

The President of Medef replied to these criticisms saying she believed it was "fantastic" that a young man with no diploma and no experience may want to be at the head of the largest business district in France.    Likewise, Nicolas Sarkozy defended his son by saying that "it's never good when someone is attacked in an excessive manner for no reason".  

 Personal life

 

Sarkozy married Jessica Sebaoun on September 10, 2008 at the town hall of Neuilly-sur-Seine. His wife is the daughter of Isabelle Maruani (née Darty) and Marc-André Sebaoun. Maruani is heir to the large electronics company, Darty group. He has denied reports that he intends to convert to Judaism. The cartoonist Siné came under sharp criticism and was fired from his magazine after accusing Jean Sarkozy of converting out of ambition and being sued by LICRA (LICRA : Ligue Internationale Contre le Racisme et l'Antisémitisme).  

 

In 2007, Le Canard Enchainé, a satirical weekly newspaper, reported that French police had gone to extraordinary lengths to try to find his scooter when it was stolen, including taking DNA samples from his helmet. The scooter was recovered in 10 days.