FRANCE

Sarkozy Apologizes for Years of Gaffes

Grilled during French TV interview.

Several weeks after launching his campaign for May’s election, French president Nicolas Sarkozy sat for a grilling on a French television show and offered a litany of apologies for the controversial moves, both personal and public, that have damaged his popularity with the French people. Sarkozy explained that he spent the night of his 2007 victory in a blingy Champs-Elysées bar because his marriage was “exploding” at the time. He apologized for recently calling a voter a “stupid jerk” on the trail, and addresed several years-old offenses, including spending a postelection holiday on a billionaire’s yacht and trying to land his unqualified son Jean a job managing La Défense, Paris’s main business district.